


Spirits and Elements (DISCONTINUED)

by CastielWinchester



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Airbending & Airbenders, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Animal Transformation, Anxiety Attacks, Bad Parenting, Deceit just wants to be understood, Dog!Patton, Dreams and Nightmares, Earthbending & Earthbenders, Fantasy, Firebending & Firebenders, Foster Care, Heathers References, Horse!Roman, I have an actual oc in here that I love, I think I have to many Heathers stuff..., Loss of Parent(s), M/M, Musical References, Neglect, Orphans, Parent Death, Roman has freckles, Shapeshifting, Spirit Animals, Superpowers, There might be ships, There's gonna be ships, To be far he may not be going about it all that right, Violence, Waterbending & Waterbenders, Who knew?, aye cabin in the woods, maaaaaagiiiic, nothing major tho, there is singing and dritt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2019-10-25 22:23:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 49,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17733758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CastielWinchester/pseuds/CastielWinchester
Summary: (Sanders Sides AU with Avatar like element bending and shapeshifting into animals, among other things.)Virgil is still in the foster system at age seventeen, and doesn’t even have a last name. He’s moved from many different foster homes in his life, and about a month after moving to a new foster home, which he hates, he meets a drama lover, a goofy dad figure, and a book loving nerd. Somehow, Virgil becomes friends with this odd bunch. But, Virgil has been noticing things that aren’t quite explainable… like the image of a raven following him. One time he thought water had trailed after him with a mind of his own. His nightmares and anxiety don’t help. The only thing that helps are his newfound friends, which he doesn’t know he can trust. Then things change a bit on his eighteenth birthday, when all those odd signs Virgil has been seeing start to make sense, but only create more questions.-----So yeah I am discontinuing this fic and all that, but I hope to rewrite it in the future. I just didn't really like how it was written. Maybe I'm just a self-judgmental thot but oh well.





	1. Hello – Evanescence

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this is my first fanfic, so go easy on me. It is kinda Virgil-centric. This is going to be a fantasy fic, but there isn’t anything really in here for the first few chapters, except some foreshadowing. This is the first chapter, which is basically introductions. Hope you like it. (Or at least don’t hate it.)
> 
> Warnings: Neglect, nightmare, anxiety attack, and aftermath of bullying like scratches.  
> Let me know if I missed anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this is my first fanfic, so go easy on me. It is kinda Virgil-centric. This is going to be a fantasy fic, but there isn’t anything really in here for the first few chapters, except some foreshadowing. This is the first chapter, which is basically introductions. Hope you like it. (Or at least don’t hate it.)
> 
> Fun Fact: The note in Virgil’s book was there because when I got my copy of Interview with the Vampire, it had a note in it to a person named Virgil. That’s actually why it’s even in the fic (it does kinda seem like our emo). Interview with the Vampire is by Anne Rice. It’s really good, and you may be able to read it for free online here if you’re interested:
> 
> www.biatv.hu/~zsu/lestat/TheVampireChronicles/%20Anne%20Rice%20-%20Interview%20With%20The%20Vampire.pdf
> 
> Warnings: Neglect, nightmare, anxiety attack, and aftermath of bullying like scratches. Let me know if I missed anything.
> 
> Cas out.

 

It had been about a month since Virgil had moved to his newest foster home. Virgil felt at this point it was ridiculous, because he was almost eighteen. Graduation was soon. He was almost an adult, why are they moving him around again? Well, wouldn’t matter for long, anyway. Like it was stated, he was turning eighteen soon. As soon as he was eighteen, he could move out of that hellhole. That made it far easier knowing he wouldn’t get attached to that place. He hated it there. Every foster home he hated. When he was younger, he wondered why the foster parents didn’t really seem to care about them. Now that he was older, he knew that it was likely because they were in it for the money, and nothing else.

It was Saturday, and Virgil was just hanging out in his room, as he usually does anytime he didn’t have work or school. He was reading a book he got from a foster kid from his old home he moved from. The kid was probably the closest thing he’d ever had to a friend. It was one of the few relationships Virgil had ever had. He smiled at the thought, looking at the note let in the beginning of the book.

 

**_Virgil,_ **

**_You said last summer that this was the only Vampire Chronicles story you hadn’t read; it’s the best one! Hope you enjoy it._ **

 

The book was Interview with the Vampire. Virgil had read other books in the Vampire Chronicles, but he’d never gotten the chance to read the first one, considering they do not need to be read in order. It might sound corny, or cliché and stereotypical for this little emo, but he rather truly enjoyed the story so far. He had gone back to the place he was reading at, when he heard a familiar ringing sound downstairs. He heard what was likely someone going to pick it up, then the person, one of his annoying and depressingly stupid ‘roommates’ screeched his name out. (God he had to sleep in the same room as this kid.) The call was for him.

He sighed as he closed his book and got up to head down the stairs. The kid glared at him as he handed over the phone. _What’s their problem this morning?_ Virgil thought, glaring back. Before he brought the phone to his ear, he heard a ‘hello’ from the other end and instantly recognized the voice.

“Hey uh, I can’t answer the phone right now, leave your name, number, and nightmare at the tone,” Virgil spoke into the phone, playing with the curly cord that connected to the wall.

“Virgil,” the voice on the other end sighed.

“Yeah, yeah, what do you need?” Virgil said.

“Kai called in sick… could you take their shift?” the voice pleaded.

“Whatever you say, you’re the boss, Hoss,” Virgil spoke with a grin his boss couldn’t see over the phone. He didn’t really let people see him smile anyway.

“Thank you Virgil, also please stop calling me that,” and with that, the caller hung up.

Virgil let out a long, dramatic sigh as he got up to start getting ready for work. He was surprised by the fact that he managed to get a job so soon after just recently moving in. Even more so by the fact that he _liked_ his boss. That’s a rare gift. He was quite grateful, of course. He all the money he earned from that place he saved up in a hiding place for when he moved out. The place he worked at was a small café downtown. Before leaving, he made sure to grab his book to read when he wasn’t having to do anything there. Both of his foster parents were ‘out’ so he didn’t have to ask or tell anyone that he was leaving. He simply walked out.

Virgil walked down the quiet streets. It was nice weather, drizzly and calm. His favorite type of weather. Not a lot of people were out, so that only meant that there were less people he had to deal with, too. That was good, considering he now took the counter shift. He hated working the counter, but it’s still a lot better than being back at that miserable foster home. He had a feeling that today was going to be alright.

As he approached the café, he chuckled at the name. _The_ _Sherwood Café._ The owner, Virgil’s boss, really liked that they could name it Sherwood, because they really enjoyed the tales of Robin Hood. (Which actually came to a surprise upon meeting them.) That, and the simple fact that it was located on Sherwood street.

Virgil opened the door, which greeted him with a little jingle of the bell above. The amount of people in the café was a moderate amount. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to deal with many people today. He got to the counter, and started his shift. He didn’t need to tell his boss he was here. They knew he was there. He didn’t even bother to put on his name tag, he didn’t like to wear it because he didn’t like total strangers knowing his name. Plus, he knew he could get away with it. He had brought his book to read while he waited. He was about to start reading again when the bell rang, telling Virgil there was a new person in the shop. He inwardly sighed. Even though today felt fine so far, it was like the universe was just _trying_ to keep him from reading the book. He held a chuckle at the ridiculous thought as he looked up at the man. The man was a bit taller than Virgil, with his brown hair brushed perfectly, and a red, white, and gold letter jacket on. He looked about seventeen.

And ridiculous.

“I would like a Caramel Macchiato, venti, skim, extra-shot, extra-hot, extra-whip, sugar-free please,” the man said. Virgil sighed at the annoying order that mostly teenage girls with a pound of makeup and snapchats to keep up with usually order. He just _knew_ this man would order something like that.

“Name?” Virgil asked, still checking and writing things on the cup.

“Roman,” the man – Roman – said, sliding the money onto the counter and walking off to wait. Virgil smirked to himself as he wrote ‘Ramen’ on the cup.  

Oops.

Virgil tended to do simple things to mess with people he found annoying. Not much, just stuff like messing up people’s names on the cups, and sometimes doodling something on it. He drew a little crown on the cup. This Roman character seemed like some Disney prince wannabe. Defiantly a Prince Philip type. Once he had finished the order, there were still no new customers. With so little people that day, that meant Virgil would deliver the drink, which he was kind of hoping for to see if the man noticed the doodling.

Virgil walked over to Roman’s table, where he was looking down at something in a book, highlight quite a bit in it. He set the cup on the table and glanced at whatever the man was looking at.

“Ah, thank you,” Roman said, going for the cup.

“What’s that?” Virgil asked curiously, pointing at the book.

“Script for the next school play,” Roman said, and smirked. “Wanna look?”

“I’m still on my shift.”

“Well, you don’t seem that busy to me.” Virgil looked down at the script. At the top of the page, it said in bold: **Into the Woods.**

“Into the Woods?” Virgil asked.

“Yep,” Roman said, popping the ‘p’. “Hey, do you still go to school here? I feel like I’ve seen you here before.”

“I mean, yeah, I guess,” Virgil responded.

“Well, what’s your name? I’ve given you mine,” Roman said. The bell jingled at the entrance. Virgil just smirked at Roman.

“Maybe I’ll see you in school tomorrow, Princey,” he said, walking off.

“Princey?” Roman asked, but Virgil was already gone. Roman looked down at what was written on his drink. He scoffed, and put a hand to his chest dramatically.

\------

_It was so dark. It was truly hard to see. He tried to speak, but nothing came out. He reached out and tried to feel around. To see if there was anything. He couldn’t find anything. He took careful, cautious steps forward. As he walked, he thought he heard light splashing. He bent down, and felt the ground. Water. He was walking in about an inch of water. As he walked forward, the water grew. It rose higher and higher. It was to his knees now. He turned back, but as he walked the water grew deeper still. No matter which direction he walked in, the water grew. It was no to his waist._

_He decided it best if he just stood still. Maybe the water would stop growing. He heard a noise in the distance. A strange cawing sound. It was almost soothing to him, the caw of this strange bird. It was quiet at first, bouncing off the water. Then it grew louder. Louder still. Then it sounded as if it was right in front of him. It sounded like a crow or a… a raven._

_Then, he felt the water begin to rise. It was slow at first. He tried to get away from the water, but he couldn’t. No matter where he went, it would still rise. Then, the rising got faster. The cawing got louder. The water was up to his chest now. **Faster. Louder.** It was reaching for his neck. He tried to swim, but he felt something at his feet. Something was keeping him in his standing level. As the water rose, there was no way to stop it. He took a deep breath. It was above his head now. The cawing got louder and louder. **Louder and louder.** He was drowning in the water, and in the noise of the once soothing raven. _

_He couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t handle it anymore. **He wouldn’t make it.** He tried to find a way out. The water felt heavier. And heavier. The noise only grew louder. He trashed around. **Heavier.** His survival instincts kicked in. **Louder.** His feet felt glued in place, unable to move. **Heavier.** The noise was so loud he thought he’d go deaf before he drowned. **Louder.** He felt things move around him. **Heavier. Heavier.** He tried to scream, but no sound came out. **Louder. Louder.** Only water. **HEAVIER.** Only noise. **LOUDER.** Only darkness. _

\------

Virgil shot up in his bed. He was covered in cold sweat. It was hard to breath. He was about to have a panic attack. _Great_. He tried to remember what tricks he’d learned to help. Five things you can see.

_Um… bed. Wall… window… lamp… door. That’s five things._

Four things you can touch.

 _Bed sheets… hoodie sleeve…_ He reached up. _Hair…_ He reached over. _Phone. That’s four things._

Three things you can hear.

_Morning birds… um… scuffling roommate … footsteps downstairs. That’s three._

Two things you can smell.

_Air freshener… toast. Two._

One thing you can taste.

_God, his mouth was dry._

Virgil felt better. He didn’t worry much about that last one. He had managed to calm himself down. It was that damn dream again. He had had it so many times before. Now that he thought about it, ever since he turned seventeen. That dream could still make him wake up in a cold sweat. Of course, he didn’t have time to dwell on it, because his foster parents were already yelling at him to get up.

“Virgil! Get up, you lazy brat!” His foster dad, Jarod, had yelled.

“Coming!” Virgil yelled, surprised he had managed the strength to do so. He’s already had one attack before, and these people didn’t care. Neither did any beforehand. By now, he’d learned to shrug them off. It’s just on days he had to get up early and go and woke up with an attack, they would just be really bad days. And, low and behold, today was Monday. His roommates were long gone, so he quickly got dressed and grabbed his backpack, which he had sewn multiple times. He couldn’t waste money buying a new one, after all.

“Must you be so lazy and sleep in like that, Jesus Virgil!” his foster mom, Patricia, had snapped at Virgil as he got into the kitchen.

“Sorry, I had a panic attack,” Virgil said monotone, grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl.

“The nerve to make up excuses! Hurry up and get outside or you’ll miss the bus!” She spat.

“Why do I even bother?” Virgil mumbled on his way out the door.

\------

Virgil got off the bus at the high school. The bus stop and campus were on opposite sides of the school, so he had a trip through the halls and cafeteria before he could get outside. He’d made a routine by now. Keep your head low, get outside, and stand to the side in a little corner so people can easily ignore you until the bell rings for you to go back inside. Simple enough.

Of course, when he got there, there was something quite different. A kid was curled up in that corner. He had his hands around his knees, and face hidden. He had curly blonde hair that curled around his ears. Virgil got closer to the boy, and noticed bleeding scratches on his arms.

“Hey, um…” Virgil said, startling the boy, making him look up. There were more scratches on the boy’s face, tear marks streamed down his face. He had bright silver eyes that were bloodshot and puffy from crying. To match them, a pair of glasses with cracked lenses. They stared at each other awkwardly.

“Do you… need any help?” Virgil offered, cringing at how he just couldn’t come up with anything better.

“I… did I deserve it?” the boy’s voice cracked.

“What?” Virgil asked.

“Did I really deserve to be beat up? They said so, and-” the boy tried to find the words. Virgil felt a pang of déjà vu at the words, except he was in this boy’s place.

“No, no. Hey, I’m sure whatever happened, you didn’t deserve this,” Virgil said. “So, who _did_ do this to you?”

“I don’t really know them. They’re really big looking… or maybe I’m just small…” the boy spoke, mumbling the last bit as he curled in on himself even more.

“Do you want me to help you to the nurse? Or call the office and report them?” Virgil suggested, making the boy stiffen.

“No, no please don’t do that, I’m fine,” The boy said as he tried – and failed – to stand up. “I guess I must still be shaken up,” he forcefully laughed out as Virgil caught him. They sat back down on the ground.

“Well, if you don’t want to go to the nurse, could you at least let me patch you up the best I can?” Virgil asked.

“I… I guess. With what?” The boy asked.

“Oh, I have an emergency kit,” Virgil said blandly, digging through his bag.

“Wait- really?” the boy giggled.

“Yeah, it’s a… nervous habit I have,” Virgil said, pulling a small first aid box from his bag. He started to go through it, and pulled out some supplies to clean and patch up the wounds. “Here, hold still.” He said, and started to clean the wounds. He put on some band aids that had classic cartoon character on them, much to the boy’s delight.

“Oh, goodness!” the boy exclaimed suddenly. “I completely forgot, I’m Patton,” he said, holding out his hand.

“Virgil,” Virgil said after a moment, hesitantly taking his hand to shake. “Oh, hey, what about your glasses?” The boy just now seemed to remember the cracked lenses.

“Oh, I think I’ll live. Thank you,” Patton said. He pulled Virgil into a hug, completely catching Virgil off guard with shock. Then, the bell rang, and they walked in to start the day.

Did Patton befriend this dark yet sweet kiddo?

\------

It was second period. Virgil sat down tiredly, having less energy to work on since he had that attack that morning. He pulled out his things, and sighed as the realization hit that it was only second period, _and_ it was math. Then, he heard a dramatic gasp, and someone spoke, shattering his thoughts.

“Hey, you’re Mister No-Name-kid!” Virgil turned around to see no other than Roman himself.

“Hey Princey,” Virgil sighed.

“Princey… why _do_ you call me that?” Roman asked.

“Because, you seem like someone straight outta Disney movie who was just trying to fit in, but not really doing a good job at it,” Virgil stated simply. _You have that kind of Princely personality, full of yourself yet most likely caring to others, too._ Virgil kept the thought to himself as Roman took a seat next to him.

“Okay, fair enough. Well, will you tell me your name?” Roman asked. Virgil acted like he was concentrating hard. He hummed, making Roman lean in slightly with anticipation. Then, finally:

“Nah,” Virgil said, trying to hide the smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth at the dramatic look he got from Roman. “Oh, and don’t bother asking anyone, I don’t really talk to people.”

“Well, I can see why, oh dark and stormy night,” Roman huffed, but a smirk pulled at his lips.

Could Roman befriend this mysterious emo?

\------

Third hour. Art class. Virgil sighed with relief. He wasn’t the greatest at this, but it was still fun to do. Today was a free day, because they had a substitute. So he could just sit in the corner and sketch. He pulled out his pencil and sketch book to continue his drawing. He opened up to a random page, revealing a drawing he had recently been working on. A wendigo. It might seem dark, but dark _is_ his style, after all. He did his sketch like those drawings where they have a male deer head and look kind of like a zombie. He didn’t want to do his like in that show he likes to watch, Supernatural, because that one didn’t really have a lot of camera time. It was hard to draw something that you couldn’t really see, aside from how it didn’t look like something he’d draw. He’d drawn other things from the show, of course, but this was straight from the myths.

After a while, Virgil got up to sharpen his pencil. He had left the page open. When he got back, he saw a boy with black hair, glasses, and a necktie staring down at his drawing left on the table. The boy looked up as a very confused Virgil approached.

“Oh, my apologies. I did not mean to intrude, I was simply intrigued. You… _do_ know what you’re drawing, correct?” the boy asked.

“Um… a wendigo. From Native American lore.” Virgil responded, not sure where this kid was going.

“Someone else who also enjoys such things. I am Logan,” the boy said, holding out his hand.

“Virgil,” Virgil said, taking the boy’s – Logan’s – hand. He inwardly smirked at the thought of Roman not knowing his name still, though he just told two other kids today.  

“I was wondering if perhaps… I could sit at this table with you? I just transferred into this class,” Logan asked. There was a beat of silence. Virgil pursed his lips.

“Sure, I guess,” he answered.

They sat down and continued their work. Every once and a while they’d stop and talk about things. They both knew a good bit of lore, which was fun to talk about.

Could Logan have befriended this quiet, yet smart child?

\------

It was lunch. Today Virgil was disgusted at the lunch options, like always. But hell, it was free food. Being an orphan does have a couple of perks. He sat down at an empty table outside, happily enjoying the cold weather. He poked at his school lunch, when a finger gently tapped his shoulder. He turned around to see who it was.

“Hey, um… I was wondering if I could sit with you?” Patton asked quietly.

“Sure,” Virgil said kindly. Patton’s silver eyes sparked with excitement, and he sat down next to the emo. Then, another figure approached.

“Excuse me, do you mind if I sit with you?” Logan asked. Virgil and Patton nodded at him to sit. They sat and ate lunch. A group of ‘popular’ kids came out, trays in hand, to sit at another table. The three boys paid them no mind, as did the fake group, not even glancing at the outcasts. Except for one.

“Roman, what’s the hold up?” one of the kids asked.

Roman stared at the table with the emo he wanted to get to know, and two other kids who seemed nice, too. Not like these fake friends he had. He really wished he didn’t hang out with them. They were plastics, in a basic sense. Fake. He felt like Veronica mixed with the Heathers. (He always made comparisons to those kid with the assholes in musicals.) He walked up to the table.

“Um, hey… can I… sit with you guys?” Roman asked. He heard mumbling from the group behind him as they walked away.

“I guess,” Virgil said. Roman sat down at the table, and felt a little better that he was here.

“So, Virgil-” Logan began, but Roman interrupted him.

“Virgil! Is that your name?” Roman asked, and Virgil nodded with a smirk tugging at his lips. He scoffed goofily. The table held giggles and banter for the rest of lunch. A lot was caused by Patton telling great puns and dad jokes, with Virgil joining in every once in a while. All the while, Virgil wondered if he _actually_ made friends.

Did Virgil really befriend a theater geek, a class clown, and a bookworm?

 

 


	2. Universally Speaking – Red Hot Chili Peppers

 

Virgil had always enjoyed water. Any body of water. Pond, lake, river, ocean, any. He would always take the option to go to the water. He had always felt comfortable around it. Funny, considering he always has nightmares about drowning, you’d think he’d be terrified of the water. That’s actually never ruined it for him. He doesn’t enjoy it any less because of those dreams.

Virgil sat in the grass at the edge of the pond, playing with the water. This was his favorite place to be, for where he currently lives. He had discovered it the first week he was here, walking around in the woods behind the foster home. It was a quiet area, a clear opening in the middle of the forest. The clearing was right next to a hill, from which a natural fountain flowed, creating a waterfall. The waterfall ended at the bottom of the hill into a small pond, not larger than a master bedroom. Its deepest area was in the middle, at a depth of four and a half feet. On the edge of the clearing was where the trees were thickest. So no one really knew about this place. Except for Virgil.

Virgil had made it his own there. But only with stuff he found there naturally for two reasons: One being he felt the place was special. He didn’t want to ruin the feeling there with junk made from humans. Two being he really didn’t have much anyway. Instead, he would move around stones and sticks, creating small structures and areas and such things you can do with sticks and stones. It was really quite nice.

Virgil was no longer sitting now, but sprawled out in the grass. The grass was soft underneath. Softer than his own bed, in fact. So a lot of the time, when he felt he could get away with it, he would come out here at night and just lay, watching the stars for hours as the seemed to slowly move across the sky. He would listen to the water trickle down the side of the hill, and into the pond. It was soothing. Tonight was one of those nights. He couldn’t sleep. So he watched the stars and listened to the water. What was unexpected was what he heard next. A sound that seemed normal to hear in the woods, but the sound was so exact that it made Virgil’s heart skip a beat.

It was the cawing sound of a raven.

Virgil quickly sat up, frantically looking around the area. But as soon as it came, it had left. It was there for only a moment. It had come and gone so fast, he thought he had imagined it. Then, he heard a soft voice whisper right into his ear as if someone was right behind him:

_The water calls you._

Virgil jumped up and spun around, expecting it to be some sort of prank. No one was there. He thought that he was to tired. That he was in that world between sleep and awake, where memory, imagination, and reality mix. In this world, he had often heard voices. Sometimes they sounded familiar, sometimes foreign. Other people had gone through such things, too. Sometimes making out a couple of words or their name, and sometimes it was just babbling one couldn’t understand. But this was too clear. It didn’t sound like it. It sounded to real.

Virgil felt something at his ankles. It was wet. He thought he’d accidentally walked into the pond in his panic. He looked down. He started to panic even more, his breathing coming faster and shallower. He _had_ to be dreaming. That doesn’t just _happen._ But it was. In his panic from the voice, he had walked _away_ from the pond. Well, the pond followed. Water had streamed from the pond and started making a pool around his feet. He took cautious steps sideways away from the small pool. It followed. It slide across the ground towards his feet. He first started to walk away backwards from the water. It followed. He turned around and started to walk faster. It followed. Faster. It followed. Faster. It followed. _Faster. It followed._

**_Faster. It followed._ **

Virgil was running full speed now, not looking back, as he headed for the foster home. He quickly opened his window, remaining quiet somehow, and slide in. He closed the window, then looked to see what he could see. Nothing. The water was gone. He looked around the room. Nothing there. He sighed with relief. Perhaps he’d imagined it all from being sleep deprived, or maybe he dreamed it somehow. He looked out the window once more, just to check. No water. Suddenly a raven quickly flew past the window. Virgil jumped. He looked around. It was now perched in a tree, staring at him. It cawed once, and flew away.

Virgil slumped into his bed, too tired to fight the sleep quickly claiming him.

\------

It had now been a week since Virgil first formally meet Patton, Logan, and Roman. It really does feel like a friendship. Although, that doesn’t mean Virgil is letting his guard down for a moment. He’s only known them a week.

Patton still won’t talk about what actually happened when he got beat up. He won’t talk about anything of the sort. He ended up redirecting the conversation every time someone asked. During one of these times, somehow he’d brought up birthdays. They gave in, opting to try and talk about it to Patton some other time. Roman was the first to tell, saying his birthday was the twenty first of December. This came to everyone’s shock.

“That’s _my_ birthday, too!” Patton cheered. “We have the same birthday?”

“Really? That’s weird, I-” Roman started.

“December twenty first is my date of birth also,” Logan said smoothly, curiosity trying to hide in his voice.

“It- it’s mine, too,” Virgil said. “I’m honestly surprised I remembered…” he mumbled the last part, but Patton had somehow heard him.

“What? How could you forget your birthday?” Patton asked, genuinely curious with a hint of distress. Virgil froze, he hadn’t meant for anyone to hear that.

“Uh… we don’t really celebrate my birthday?” Virgil said, hoping it would satisfy them. Wrong answer. It seemed to surprise them more than the fact they all had the same freaking birthday.

“What!?” Patton said, most surprised. “Why!?” Virgil simply shrugged his shoulders. Patton huffed at the answer.

“Padre, our birthdays are coming up…” Roman started.

“I know! I only have a week to get you guys stuff!” Patton huffed.

“Well, Patton we have only known each other for-” Logan started.

“Patton, I meant Vir-” Roman started.

“Pat, what about yo-” Virgil started.

They were all cut off by Patton.

“Nah uh, I’m getting you guys stuff, and I’m making sure you get a birthday party. _Especially_ you, Virgil,” Patton exclaimed. With that, he pulled them all in a hug. Virgil couldn’t see the other’s reaction, except he was standing next to Logan, so he could feel Logan rapidly heat up when Patton pulled them into the hug he somehow managed to pull off. Virgil smiled at Patton.

If this little mixed up group were to stay together, Patton would be the glue to hold them close.

“So… are we not gonna talk about how weird it is that we share the same birthday?”

\------

They had agreed to meet up at the shopping center downtown for birthday shopping. Virgil didn’t have a lot of money, but he was still sure that he could manage to get everyone something. And luckily for him, the walk to the mall wasn’t that far. There was no way he was asking for ride. He walked, enjoying the drizzly weather that had made its way to this small town. He got there as the last person, obviously because he had to walk. They met up and talked for a bit, before finally splitting up and going through the mall.

The mall was rather large. It was filled with people, much to Virgil’s distaste. He started to think about how truly _odd_ it was that they did happen to share the same birthday. All four of them. What are the odds that they were all born on the twenty first of December, and end up becoming friends during their senior year? Truth be told, Virgil knew it wasn’t impossible. But it was _very_ improbable. Yet, here they are.

Virgil walked around the mall, peaking into shops to see what they supplied. Honestly, he didn’t really know what to get them. He looked around to try and find things that those people he hung out with, which he now called ‘friends’ would like. While looking, he thought about what Logan told him about why he enjoyed mythology and lore:

“ _Mythology is full of fiction and fantasy, completely unrealistic and hard to understand. But it is rather interesting to learn what people once believed and may still believe. The falsehoods in such stories are often laid on a foundation of truth. It is rather intriguing, and sometimes I enjoy deciphering what those people truly meant and why they thought what they thought.”_

Virgil eventually found shops that seemed like them. Then he searched all around the shops until he found the best thing to get them. When he finally finished, he sighed with relief, and checked his phone. It was almost noon, which they promised to meet back at the food court by twelve, so he began to head over.

As Virgil walked, something in a display window caught his eye. It was a portrait that consisted of mixing the four elements. Earth, fire, air, and… water. The elements were swirled here and there, twisting and turning, distorting until it was a beautiful mess. The painting gave him an odd feeling, and he looked at what shop was holding this piece. There wasn’t even a sign, but from the looks of it, it was some sort of gypsy shop. It was weird, but neat and intriguing. He checked his phone, he had time.

Virgil walked in, and the first thing he noticed was a small detailed sculpture of a raven. It was elegant, and hand made. He resisted the urge to touch it, just to see if it was real. There was _no_ way he could afford that, so like hell he was going to tough it. But it was mesmerizing. He looked around the shop for the owner or a worker, but none were there. He started to walk around the shop, looking here and there. Once he glanced over at a table, and nothing was there. He turned around for a moment, then turned back, and there was a black book laying there, which he was sure wasn’t there a moment before. He read the title, which was written in a sliver font.

**_Your Spirit Animal._ **

Virgil picked it up and flipped through it. He was very careful and cautious while handling it, as it felt quite old. Years. Maybe a few hundred? He wouldn’t think it to be _that_ old, but it was what it felt like. It was obviously old, noting the yellowing of the pages and that the pictures were actually drawings. But the drawings were _very_ detailed, and almost enchanting. They seemed to realistic. He stared at the drawing of a raven, and the caption of that drawing was:

_The Raven – Magic, the messenger of the great mystery, a change in consciousness._

“Amazing, is it not?”

Virgil jumped and slammed the book shut as he spun around to see who spoke. A women dressed, well, like a gypsy, watched him.

“Um…” Virgil started.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you, I’ve been told I am too quiet for my own good,” the woman said, and held out her hand. “My name is Angel.” Virgil took her hand, and started to relax.

“Virgil,” he said.

“Well, Virgil, that book is yours if you want it,” Angel said.

“What?” he asked.

“I’m not actually selling it, I don’t even know how it got out here… but I no longer have a use for it, you can have it,” she said kindly.

“Oh, well, thank you,” Virgil said. He glanced back down at the book, just now noticing the design of a raven in silver on the cover. Odd, he didn’t see that before. The woman look over at the wall, and Virgil turned to see a clock.

“Oh, goodness, I must be going. It was nice meeting you, little raven,” Angel said, and walked away without another word, not letting Virgil process what she had said until he let the shop.

“Little raven?” he muttered. “Why there been ravens everywhere?”

\------

“Virgil! Where have you been?” Patton asked, pulling Virgil into a hug.

“Calm down Pop-Star, I just lost track of time at some shop back there,” Virgil said.

“Alright little emo, I wanna see what you got,” Roman said, reaching for the bag. Virgil giggled.

“Ro, you know some stuff in here is for you too, so I can’t let you see,” Virgil said.

“Why do you think I wanna see, just a peek,” Roman whined childlike, and pouted with his lips out. Virgil almost laughed.

“No. Hey, where’s Lo?” Virgil asked, looking around for the group’s nerd.

“He went to get us food,” Patton said.

“Alright… but what is it?”

“He said it was a surprise.” Patton giggled.

“Yes, I suppose it was a surprise,” Logan said behind them, which made Virgil jump. “My apologies, Virgil, I thought you knew I was here,” He said as Virgil turned around to face him.

“It’s fine, Lo,” Virgil sighed as they sat down to eat. Virgil didn’t really eat much, but that was normal for him, but it still concerned the others. They talked while they ate. Friendly banter and such, then the subject of that little store with no name came up.

“Sure I can show you guys, since you seem so interested,” Virgil said.

“Well, this book the woman just simply gave you seems quite old, and I am curious as to where she may have gotten it,” Logan said.

They followed Virgil down through the mall, passing stores. Virgil remembered the way by remembering which stores he had passed. He knew the store was now right around the corner, but when he turned it-

It wasn’t there.

All there was an empty opening that for sale for someone else to buy, and create their own shop. Virgil was sure this was it. It _had_ to be. He looked around. Everything else was the same. He looked at the shop once more. It was empty and closed, all that was there was the sign that said **For Sale** taped on the window, in the same area he had seen the painting that lured him in. At least, he thought.

“I’m sure it was here… Maybe I took a wrong turn?” Virgil sighed. He felt so sure it was here.

“Well, maybe we can look again sometime, but I’ve gotta head home, oh dark and stormy night,” Roman said.

“Yes, my mother is going to pick up Patton and I soon. It looks like it may rain,” Logan said. Virgil looked at his phone. Yeah, if he didn’t get home soon, Jarod was going to be pissed.

“Yeah, alright, maybe some other time,” Virgil said.

They were heading back, and the first step Virgil took away from the shop, he felt something underfoot. Under his foot was a necklace. It was the one that woman, Angel, was wearing. He picked it up and looked at it. It was a silver chain with a purple stone pendant. Questions still raced through his head as he looked at it, wondering where it all went. A voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Virgil, kiddo, you coming?” Patton asked.

“Yeah, sorry,” Virgil said, shoving the necklace into his pocket and following the group.

\------

“What? Are you serious?” Roman asked Virgil. Patton had already let with Logan and his mother as soon as they got outside the building, so it was just Virgil and Roman.

“Yeah, why?” Virgil asked, as they stood under the protection of the mall entrance.

“Maybe because it’s literally pouring rain and I already saw three lighting strikes in the last five minutes,” Roman said sharply.

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me,” Virgil said, just about to walk into the mess of the storm, before Roman grabbed his shoulder.

“My car is literally right there, let me drive you home,” Roman offered, pointing at the red car.

“I can walk Princey, it’s not that far,” Virgil said.

“Please, I couldn’t stand to leave you out here like this,” Roman begged. Virgil looked over at the bright car.

“Fine,” Virgil sighed. Roman cheered in victory as they quickly made their way to Roman’s car. Once in, Roman asked the question.

“So… where do you live?” he asked, starting the car.

Virgil gave his address, hoping that when he got there everyone would stay put inside since it was storming pretty bad. Virgil really hoped that Roman wouldn’t notice. He never did tell them he was and orphan. Roman pulled out of the mall parking lot, and Virgil sat in silence. Roman seemed uncomfortable. Then, finally, he sighed.

“Hey, uh, I understand if you don’t really wanna talk about it, but I know what this address is and…” Roman trailed off, not knowing how to put it into words. He knew Virgil was an orphan.

“Can you please not tell the others?” Virgil said.

“If you don’t want me to, I won’t. But you know they are gonna find out sooner or later,” Roman sighed.

“Yeah, I know… just, not yet,” Virgil sighed, fiddling with the sleeves of his only hoodie.

“Do you mind me asking how?” Roman asked.

“They died in a car accident,” Virgil said plainly.

“Oh… sorry, did you know them well?” Roman asked sympathetically.

“Yeah, enough to know you shouldn’t be sorry,” Virgil said, anger in his tone, fists curling slightly in his sleeves. He tried to hide it, though Roman could see it.

There was silence after that. They didn’t talk for the rest of the trip, at least not until they made it to the foster home. Roman pulled up the driveway, and like Virgil had hoped, no one inside even seemed to notice. The rain had even let up by then. The sun was out, drying things. Virgil didn’t get out of the car.

“Roman, are you… in any hurry to get home?” Virgil asked, avoiding eye contact and staring at the house.

“That sounds like the question of a serial killer, Virgil,” Roman said, eyeing him. “Why?”

“I… wanted to show you something, out in the woods,” Virgil said, still staring at the home.

“Okay, like an axe?” Roman joked, but Virgil was serious.

“You just have to promise not to tell anyone else about it, it’s… like a secret,” Virgil said, finally looking at Roman, straight in the eyes.

“Do you trust me?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cas out.


	3. I’m Just Your Problem – Adventure Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song in this chapter is originally sung by a female, I know, but there is the gender-bend version of it. I have the link to it at the end of the chapter.
> 
> Warnings: Mention of weapons, a fight that gets verbal and physical, and being drunk.  
> Let me know if I missed anything.

 

“Uh…” Roman looked Virgil in the eyes, and with giving no certain answer, Virgil frowned. “Sorry, you kinda caught me off guard with the Aladdin thing…” Roman broke eye contact for a moment, then looked back at Virgil’s eyes once more. “But… yes.” Virgil smiled, a smile that was quite rare from him. Even if Virgil was a killer and bringing him into the woods to get axed, Roman felt he made the right choice with getting to see that smile.

“Okay then, follow me,” and with that, Virgil got out of the car and went straight towards the woods behind the house. Roman promptly followed.

Of course, that is Roman still had to lock up his car. Virgil stayed silent as he pulled up the hood of his all black hoodie over his head. He put his hands in his pockets, waiting for Roman to lock up his car. When he saw that Roman was done, he quickly made his way back to the mission at hand. _Into the woods,_ Virgil realized and giggled inwardly to himself.

Roman was behind Virgil as they walked. It was uncomfortably silent, at least for Roman. Virgil enjoyed the silence, and on and off, only a moment, Virgil would forget Roman was there. He was so used to going to this place by himself. He never thought he’d take anyone else there. He remembered the events that occurred recently at that place. He had actually gone back a couple of times, and nothing happened. So, he wrote it off as sleep deprovision, since there were enough facts to say it wasn’t an actual dream, but it probably wasn’t real. Then Roman snapped him out of his thoughts.

“So… gonna tell me where we’re going?” Roman asked.

“We’re almost there. But…” Virgil trailed off.

“What is it?” Roman asked.

“Gimme your scarf,” Virgil said. Roman looked down at the red and gold scarf he had been wearing.

“…Why?” Roman asked, squinting his eyes at Virgil.

“Just trust me. I’m going to blindfold you. And I don’t have a weapon,” Virgil said, hands raised in defense.

“You don’t need a weapon to kill me,” Roman said, taking off his scarf. “But I trust you, I guess.”

“You guess?” Virgil said, taking the scarf. Roman giggled as Virgil put the blindfold on.

“What’s so funny?” Virgil asked.

“This is ridiculous,” Roman said, touching the blindfold. Virgil sighed.

“This is a secret place, I don’t want you to follow on your own,” He said, and grabbed Roman’s sleeve to lead him through the trees. They walked for a bit, then finally got to the place.

“Alright, you can take off the blindfold now,” Virgil said. Roman slide off the blindfold, letting it rest around his neck and on his shoulders as he looked around where Virgil had brought him.

Mesmerizing green grass sprawled all around them. A hill lay in front of them, and coming from it was a natural fountain. The crystal-clear water spilled out into a pond, which look good enough to drink. Stones, logs and some sticks were placed around, making decorations and places to sit. Roman was dumbfounded.

“This… did you…” Roman was at a lose for words.

“This place is like my sanctuary. I come here a lot because no one else knew about it and it just… seemed to calm me down,” Virgil said, taking off his hood, letting sunshine spill onto his face. Roman looked over at Virgil, who wasn’t looking at him at the moment. The way the light highlighted his already bright smile was enchanting. This was one of those very rare moment with Virgil. Roman had never seen him like this before. He was sure he had been like this before, but Roman had never seen it. He stared at Virgil, taking in the view of a truly happy emo.

They actually stayed there awhile, just enjoying their time together. They talked and at one-point Roman splashed Virgil with a bit of water. They ended up splashing back and forth, at the start it was small and simple, then it quickly escalated. It became a war. They were standing in the water, and at the end it looked like Virgil had poured a huge bucket of water on Roman with just one go. He didn’t know how he did it, but he was damn proud of himself. He didn’t care if the little makeup he was wearing was running, allowing Roman see all of the small blush once hidden underneath the pale makeup. Only then did Virgil realize the time.

“We’ve gotta head back,” Virgil sighed, trying his best to shake off the water. Suddenly, a small spark shot out of the grass, creating a small flame _right next to Roman’s foot._ He jumped away from it. Virgil tugged he soggy sleeve until it was hanging from his hand, and wringed it with the other hand over the small flame.

“That was… odd,” Roman said, still a tad bit flustered. Virgil thought back to what happened a few nights before. He shook off the thought as the walked back. They were almost near the house when Roman stopped.

“Did you hear that?” Roman asked, looking around.

“Hear what?” Virgil asked.

“It sounded like a-”

“What the HELL is THIS!?” a voice shouted. Virgil jumped, and realization was slapped across his face. He darted towards the house, leaving Roman behind. Once he got there, he saw Jarod at Roman’s car. He looked up.

“Virgil! There you are, where have you been!?” Jarod asked sharply. “Do you know what this is!?”

“It’s my car, sir. I drove Virgil home,” Roman said, coming up behind Virgil. A conversation ensued of which the author does not want to repeat to the kiddos listening. Then, Jarod stormed off into the house.

“Sorry about him, Ro,” Virgil sighed, finally breathing.

“You have to live with that?” Roman joked.

“Not for long. I get to move out as soon as I turn eighteen,” Virgil said. 

“Well-”

“Virgil! Hurry up and get you ass in here!” Jarod yelled.

“You should… probably go,” Virgil said.

“Are you sure?” Roman said.

“Yeah. I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” Virgil said. Roman sighed.

“Alright. Just, be safe,” Roman said, got into his car, and left. Virgil sighed, and walked into the house.

\-----

“Virgil, my man!” Elliot said, slapping her hands on the counter as the familiar jingle of the door rang out.

“Someone’s extra cheery today, what happened?” Virgil said, heading to the counter for his shift at _The_ _Sherwood Café._

“I dunno, today just feels great!” Elliot sighed.

“Hey, how was therapy yesterday? Did Mr. Peacock help any?” Virgil asked.

“ _Picani_. And yes, he did help. Maybe that’s why I’m a bit more upbeat today. Welp, it’s your shift.”

“You’re the boss, Hoss,” Virgil said with an evil smirk.

“Virge, honey, I love you, but please for the love of all red giant robots, _please_ stop calling me that,” Virgil’s boss sighed, walking to the back of the shop. Virgil laughed at what Elliot said. He heard the iconic Giant Robot phrase from a certain Norwegian in his head.

“I like your hat,” Virgil called after them, complementing their grey and black beanie.

“Gee, thanks,” they called back. Virgil giggled. He liked this job. The only part he didn’t like was the counter shifts, but he always got a chance to read during counter shifts, which was an upside. Virgil had been reading in that book he got about the spirit animals, when the entrance bell jingled.

“Ah, just who I was hoping to see here on this grand day! I found n _emo_!” Roman cheered, making a horribly planned Disney reference.

“Hey, Princey,” Virgil said, then looked behind the Disney fanboi. “Dad, teach.”

“Hey kiddo!”

“Greetings and salutations.”

“Whadya guys want?” Virgil said, his chins in his hands as he rested his elbows on the counter.

“Logan will have a black coffee, Patton wants a hot cocoa with marshmallows, whipped cream, and cinnamon, and I’ll have-”

“One of those annoying famous-on-the-internet-teenage-girl-Starbucks drink? How about this month’s special? It has pumpkin and spice in it,” Virgil interrupted, remembering Roman’s usual type of order.

“…Sure,” Roman said poker-faced.

“Coming right up, Prince Philip,” Virgil said, turning around to get to work. On Patton’s cup, he wrote ‘Dad’, on Logan’s, ‘Teach’, and Roman’s, he simply wrote ‘Beef.’ Before taking the cups to his newfound friends, he checked the clock. He had one more minute to his shift, so he decided he could probably hang out with them, if they were alright with it. He went over to the table, and delivered the drinks. He sat down in the last empty seat, which happened to be right next to Roman.

“Beef?” Roman asked. Virgil snorted in response.

“Shifts over, so it’s okay if I hang with you guys, right?” Virgil asked, ignoring Roman.

“Of course, kiddo!” Patton said beaming.

“I am glad you can ‘hang’ with us,” Logan said.

“You’ve been using those flashcards, haven’t you?” Virgil asked Logan.

“Yeet,” Logan said straight faced, casing Roman and Virgil to burst into laughter, and a giggling but slightly confused Patton.

They talked for a bit, thinking out loud about their upcoming birthday, when the bell rang out once more. Roman looked at the door, and instantly all color drained from his face.

“Hey, uh, guys, could we, uh, maybe get out of here? Go- go some place else?” Roman stuttered, eyes glued to the people who had entered.

“Ro, kiddo? You okay, what’s the matter?” Patton asked, concerned. Virgil looked in the direction Roman looked, and froze too.

“Uh oh,” Virgil said. Logan and Patton finally turned around to see. It was those popular kids from school. What our little group of beans called _The Plastics._ (Roman’s idea.)

“Stop staring. Let’s just leave,” Roman said, gathering himself. Roman was the first to notice the fear in Patton’s gaze. “Pat, c’mon buddy,” Roman said, getting up to comfort him.

“Are… are they the ones…” Virgil started.

“Are those the people who hurt you, Patton?” Logan asked. All eyes were on Patton. He didn’t respond. He got up and was ready to leave. Roman nodded his head. Those were the people who beat up Patton. One of those plastics noticed the group, and pointed them out.

“Let’s- let’s just go,” Patton said, staring at his feet.

“Hey, Roman!” A boy with brown hair called out as the group of three walked over. Roman didn’t look over, instead opted to help Logan and Virgil out to go.

“Ro, what are you doing hanging out with these _losers_?” a girl wearing a green shirt asked. That got Roman’s attention.

“What?” he snapped. A hand came to his shoulder.

“Princey, c’mon-”

“No. What did you call them?”

“You heard us darling,” the third person said, who was wearing to much makeup, non-binary or not. “They are _losers._ Completely worthless. Come with us dear, we’ll get you fixed back up to almost good in no time.” Roman just about lost it.

“They aren’t _losers,_ they are my _friends_!” Roman said, raising his voice.

“Roman, we should just leave,” Logan tried to reason.

“Darling, you truly are _pathetic_ if you think these people are your friends,” they said. Roman felt a hand touch his shoulder, a gentle hand. He took a deep breath and sighed.

“No, _you’re_ the pathetic one, Alex,” Roman said calmly. “C’mon guys, let’s go.” The group of friends set out to leave, but the plastics followed.

“Roman, I’ll give you one last chance, or you’re never coming back. You’ll-” Alex tried to rant, but Roman interrupted.

“Just zip your damned filled lips,” Roman said without turning around. Suddenly, he came into contact with the floor with a crash. Alex had pushed him. Hard. Virgil got pissed.

“What the FUCK?!” Virgil yelled. He saw Elliot come from the back out of the corner of his eyes.

“Oh, look, the orphan fights back. Did your parents not love you enough to keep you?” Virgil froze.

“How did you-”

“I have my ways, dear,” Alex yawned. Virgil turned to Roman, who was being helped up by Patton and Logan. Roman shook his head.

“I kept it a secret Virgil, I swear,” Roman said. Virgil turned back around to a smirking group of plastics. He clenched his fist.

“Virgil,” Elliot said, coming over. “You know you shouldn’t. Let me handle it,” she turned to face the group. “You three are banned from this establishment.”

“What!? You can’t be serious,” the one in green said.

“I am very serious.”

“That’s fine, coffee here sucked anyway,” the one with brown hair said.

“Your opinion is invalid. Now, leave,” Elliot said firmly. The trio started to leave, but Alex made sure Virgil could hear them when they mumbled out “Dirty little orphan.” Honestly, Virgil didn’t even care what they did to or said about him anymore. What made him snap was when Alex shoved an already shaking Patton to the ground. Red hot rage filled Virgil. The rest was a blur, but it felt damn good when he hit them in their face. He knew they were going to have a black eye as the group ran out.

“Virgil, honey, they’re all gone now,” Elliot said behind him, a hand resting on his shoulders.

“I’m sorry,” Virgil sighed, looking down. He now felt the entire café’s gaze burning into him. He left without another word. No one stopped him.

\------

Virgil walked with his hands deep in the pockets of his hoodie. He mumbled to himself about how stupid those people are, and how stupid he was. He headed for the woods behind the foster home.

\------

Everyone just stared. They didn’t know what to do. Roman was the first to do anything. He gathered himself and silently left the café. He had an idea where Virgil would have gone…

\------

Roman walked through the woods, trying his best to remember were exactly it was. He was blindfold part of the way, but he was confident he could try to find his way back. Then, he heard a sound. It wasn’t what he had heard last time. This was someone singing in a soft, gravelly voice. He strained to hear the words, and find out where it was coming from.

 

**_…don't treat you like a god,_ **   
**_Is that what you want me to do?  
__Sorry I don't treat you like you're perfect,_**   
_Like all your little loyal subjects do._

****

Roman followed the sound on a familiar trail.

 

_**Sorry I'm not made of sugar,** _   
_**Am I not sweet enough for you? I** _   
_**s that why you always avoid me?** _   
_**I must be such an inconvenience to you!** _   
_**Well, I'm just your problem,** _   
_**Well, I'm just your problem,** _

__

He found Virgil at the special place Roman knew he’d be, _singing._ Roman thought it was beautiful. He didn’t disturb Virgil. Roman let him continue.

 

**_It's like I'm not, even a person, Am I? No_ **   
**_I'm just your problem,_ **   
**_Well I shouldn't have to justify what I do_ **   
**_And I shouldn't have to prove anything to you._ **   
**_I'm sorry that I exist,_ **   
**_I forgot what landed me on your black list,_ **   
**_But I shouldn't have to be the one who makes up with you,_ **   
**_So why do I want to?_ **   
**_Why do I want to?_ **   
**_Because of you I don´t have a clue_ **   
**_I´m asking you,_ **   
**_So why do I want to?_ **

****

Virgil stopped. He got up and looked around.

“Who’s there?” Virgil asked. Roman came out of hiding.

“Sorry if I scared you, Virge. Um…” Roman trailed off, not knowing how to ask.

“I’m fine now, if that’s what you mean,” Virgil said.

“Are you sure?” Roman asked.

“Don’t worry about me, Ro. Are you guys okay? I left without even checking-” Virgil started to rant, but Roman cut him short. He took Virgil’s hand in his own.

“We’re alright, I promise,” Roman said. They stared at each other for a moment, then Roman broke the silence. “You sing great.” Virgil blushed.

“You really heard that, huh? I was kinda hoping you didn’t hear that…” Virgil said, looking away.

“Why? It was beautiful,” Roman smiled. Virgil went over to the pond and sat down. Roman followed suit. “And, it was Adventure Time.”

“You know Adventure Time?” Virgil asked.

“You seem surprised,” Roman smirked.

They started talking a lot about Adventure Time, then, as most conversations do, it changed and progressed. They started to talk about other cartoons, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe. The subject o Eddsworld came up, which Virgil got introduced to by his boss, Elliot (Virgil never took them as one to watch something like that, but who knew). Other TV shows came up, Supernatural, Once Upon a Time, Doctor Who, etc. Musicals, too. Be More Chill, Heathers, Dear Evan Hansen. They talked and talked, and they actually had new shows and things to they just _had_ to watch when given an opportunity. Time flew by, then they realized they should probably let Patton and Logan know Virgil is okay. Roman pulled out his phone and went through his contacts, and saw those three plastics still in his contacts. He deleted and blocked them instantly. Then he made sure to do the same on any social media account he had. He wanted to cut them out of his life as much as possible, remove the toxic people. Then he went back and called Patton, who he hoped was still with Logan. Patton immediately picked up.

“Roman! Are you okay? Did you find Virgil?” Patton asked. Roman heard Logan ask things in the background.

“I’m fine, Pat, I’m fine. Yes, I found Virgil, he’s alright,” Roman said, trying to calm Patton down. “I’m gonna put you on speaker, okay?” Roman turned on the speaker, and Virgil greeted Patton.

“Virgil! Oh, I was so worried! You guys just let without saying anything, and I just-”

“Patton, calm down, okay? We’re fine,” Roman insisted. He looked at Virgil, who was hiding a smile behind his sleeve that was threatening to show at the sound of their worried friend.

“Um, guys, I was wondering, if uh-” there was shuffling on the line, then a new voice showed up.

“Patton asked me to ask something for him,” Logan stated.

“Okay, what is it?” Virgil asked.

“He wants to know if we would like to have a sleepover at his home, considering our birthday is tomorrow,” Logan said. Virgil and Roman looked at each other.

“Is he sure he can have us?” Virgil asked. There was a sound in the background, something coming from Patton that he could take them in for the night.

“He is sure,” Logan said.

“Alright, then yeah, I’ll be there,” Roman said, and he looked at Virgil.

“Yeah, sure,” Virgil said. There was a shout of joy from Patton, who then took the phone back.

“Okay, you guys try to be there by… seven? If that works? I’ll text you the address,” Patton said.

“Seven will work, padre,” Roman reassured.

“Great! Oh, and, uh, Roman, I know you have your own stuff but…” Patton trailed off for a bit. “Virgil, kiddo, you don’t worry about it. I have you covered.”

“Thanks, Pat,” Virgil said, and Patton hung up.

“Well, we could probably start to get ready to go…” Roman said.

“I’ll just go let Patricia know I’m going,” Virgil said.

“Do you need to get anything out of there?”

“Nah, I don’t have anything in there anyway. Everything of value I keep on me,” Virgil said, shaking his bag, which is the same bag as his school bag. How did Roman not notice him carrying it before?

They got back to the foster home, and Virgil knocked on the door. Patricia answered the door.

“Back from work? Okay, c’mon,” she said, leaving to go back inside.

“No, Patricia, I’m going to stay over at a friend’s place tonight,” Virgil said.

“Really?” she said sarcastically turning around. “A _friend_?”

“Yes m’lady, he is,” Roman said, showing himself in the doorway.

“Alright, whatever,” she said, grabbing a bottle of Smirnoff off the counter and heading to the living room. “Shut the door.”

Virgil shut the door and started walking away. Roman followed.

“She’s drunk. Again,” Virgil sighed.

“Really?” Roman asked.

“You couldn’t see it? She doesn’t really care when she’s drunk.”

“Okay… well, are you gonna come with me to my place to pick up some stuff?” Roman asked.

“Sure, I guess,” Virgil responded.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Virgil sighed. He smiled to himself because, for once, he actually had people in his life who cared about him. Even if it did feel unnecessary, it was a nice change of pace.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m Just Your Problem is from Adventure Time. Link to a YouTube video of the Marshall Lee version:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYKRR_lc0Qw
> 
> Cas out.


	4. Freeze Your Brain – Heathers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Black out, suicide, murder.  
> I think that’s it, let me know it I missed anything.
> 
> Chill, it’s just story time, nothing serious. Mostly.

 

Roman’s house was pretty normal. It was a decent size, a normal amount of furniture and appliances, it was a nice home. But to Virgil, it was _huge._ He was always used to small, cramped foster homes. Roman’s home felt like a mansion. The furniture was amazing, it was soft and clean, and it even _matched._ The furniture came in a set. It was quite the home to Virgil. Roman had no parents home at the time being, they were out on a… business trip. Virgil and Roman had time to hang out, so Roman made snacks in the meantime. Virgil sat in the dining room while Roman made snacks. It was so clean, and it smelled really nice, like… lavender? Roman must have had it made.

After snacks, Roman had to go to his room to pack up stuff for the sleepover. Virgil followed Roman up to his room and wow. First thing he noticed, which didn’t surprise him, was the fact that the walls were literally covered with Disney and musical posters. I mean, literally _covered_ with them. You couldn’t even see the walls. Obviously, he had been collecting them for years, since some of them had dates back to at least five years. Roman’s bed was a king bed. Virgil was lucky when the foster home had twin beds. He flopped on Roman’s bed and _god it was soft._ Virgil had always wondered what it was like in those other homes. The ones that weren’t overflowing with annoying children who stank because no one cared about them, only the money. The ones were furniture wasn’t stained with juice or food or alcohol. The ones with families. _Real_ families. The ones that actually cared about each other, who had each other’s backs in times of need. He had always wondered what that was like.

Once Roman had finished packing, they were ready to go. Roman tossed a bag to Virgil. He told Virgil it was some extra stuff he wasn’t going to use and that he could borrow it. When they got back outside, the rain had started up again. They got into Roman’s car and away from the rain. They typed Patton’s address into the GPS of the car, and they were off. As they drove, the rain hit harder and harder. It poured down heavier by the minute. It was good they didn’t have long to drive, because it was likely to start flash flooding soon. Virgil then thought how similar this felt, like he’d seen it before, then he remembered.

“Roman?” Virgil asked for Roman’s attention. Roman hummed in response, still focused on the road with the rain pouring, but letting Virgil know he was listening. “Remember that scene in Big Fish when it started to rain really heavy, and it flooded so much it looked like he was at the bottom of a lake?”

“Yeah, hey yeah!” Roman said smiling. Roman didn’t see because his eyes were on the road – drive safe kids – but Virgil smiled at the way Roman smiled.

They got to Patton’s house and from the outside, it seemed very similar to Roman’s. Not cookie-cut, but just in the factors of size and such. It actually already seemed like a nice, warm house from the outside. Roman ran up to the door – as to avoid getting soaked – with his bag in hand, and rang the bell, Virgil not far behind. The door opened, and an unfamiliar and unfriendly face stared down at Roman and Virgil.

“Who is this?” the man asked. They heard footsteps, then they saw Patton try his best to peer through and see who was being referred to.

“Oh! Those are my friends, Roman and Virgil! You can let them in,” Patton said. The man grumbled something under his breath as the two walked in, instantly pulled into a hug by no other than Patton. Patton squealed.

“Alright, I’m off,” the man said, and left the house without another word.

“In this weather?” Roman asked, glancing in the direction of the now shut door.

“Oh, that’s just him,” Patton said with a wave of his hand.

“Who is he, exactly?” Virgil said, jamming a thumb in the direction the man went. Patton went to answer, but Logan came up.

“That would be his father,” he said calmly.

“Ah, yeah, that would make sense, I guess…” Roman said.

“My dad is probably gonna be out all night. Okay, so I’ve got Logan’s stuff out of the way, let’s get you two settled in,” Patton said with a smile and his hands on his hips.

Patton had decided on them all staying in his room to sleep, of course. But he also insisted on sleeping on the ground with them. So they set up blankets and pillows and sleeping bags. Patton had supplied Virgil with things he needed but didn’t get the privilege of owning. Patton ran out of the room or a moment, only to come back with snacks and drinks. They snacked and talked. Then, Patton went over to his closet, and yanked it open. Pillows and blankets of all colors and size spilled out, along with stuffed animals. They built a huge pillow fort going almost across the entire room, and above each boy’s sleeping area.

They completely forgot the problems they had that day and any other given day. They just enjoyed each other’s company.

Once the fort was complete, the crawled inside to marvel at their work. It was grand. They sat together and talked, and laughed, and just relaxed and had fun. Roman pulled out the script to the school’s next play that he was in, **Into the Woods.** He played two parts in it: The wolf and, of course, the prince. And, the fort was big enough that Roman had the room to preform bits of it for the group, which was quite enjoyable.

Then the conversation went from Into the Woods to Heathers. Roman recalled the time he’d spent acting in the musical as JD. Of course, it wasn’t a school musical, obviously. It was for a small theatre. Roman began to reenact scenes from the musical, and tried to convince the others to join. Patton was the only one to agree, because Logan felt it foolish and Virgil was to shy, even though he knew the musical way better than Roman thought. Roman claimed that it was his favorite musical, and began going through some of his favorite songs. He began to sing Freeze Your Brain. That hit straight home for Virgil, like it usually did every time he heard the song. (It’s funny because he’s not straight.)

He began to sing along.

He stayed quiet at first, barely audible compared to Roman’s strong voice. But as the song continued, Virgil got swept away with old and new emotions. It felt like the song had carried him away. He began to sing louder, still trying to make sure that he couldn’t be heard.

 

**_I learned to cook pasta_ **  
**_I learned to pay rent_ **  
**_Learned the world doesn't owe you a cent_ **

**_You're planning your future_ **  
**_Veronica Sawyer_ **  
**_You'll go to some college_ **  
**_And marry a lawyer_ **  
**_But the sky's gonna hurt when it falls_ **  
**_So you better start building some walls_ **

****

He felt the song evoke things inside him he’d buried, and he sang louder and stronger.

****

**_Freeze your brain_ **  
**_Swim in the ice_ **  
**_Get lost in the pain_ **  
**_Shut your eyes tight, till you vanish from sight_ **  
**_Let nothing remain_ **

****

He closed his eyes and leaned back against a pile of pillows as he let himself flow with the song spilling form his mouth.

****

**_Freeze your brain_ **  
**_Shatter your skull_ **  
**_Fight pain with more pain_ **  
**_Forget who you are_ **  
**_Unburden your load_ **  
**_Forget in six weeks, you'll be back on the road_ **  
**_When the voice in your head_ **  
**_Says you're better off dead_ **  
**_Don't open a vein_ **

****

He didn’t notice Roman had stopped singing, or that they were looking at him.

****

**_Just freeze your brain_ **  
**_Freeze your brain_ **  
**_Go on and freeze your brain_ **

****

That’s when he’d stopped. That’s when he realized _they were all staring at him._ At first sight, he was panicking. He was scared that they thought he sounded stupid or bad. Worried that they were annoyed at him for doing this. But when he really saw their faces, they weren’t angry or annoyed. They were bewildered. Well, Patton and Logan were. They were speechless. But Roman just smiled. That gentle smile that made anyone get butterflies in their stomachs. Roman glanced over at the two bewildered boys, who were still staring at Virgil, eyes wide with shock and excitement.

“I told you,” Roman said, barely a whisper. He was uncharacteristically quiet from the shock of silence that suddenly blanketed the room, and Roman felt like he wasn’t supposed to pull it off.

“Wow, that was… amazing…” Patton whispered.

“Virgil, your singing is incredible,” Logan said, barely louder than Patton. Even though Virgil had seen it I their faces, he was still visibly shocked at the boys’ responses. Did they really think he was good? Or were they just saying that because they felt they were supposed to, because they were friends? His thoughts were cut short as Roman spoke up.

“He’s really shy about his singing,” Roman said. Virgil stayed silent, whether from fear or shock he knew not. _When did Roman get a chance to tell these two about his singing?_

“Virgil, kiddo, why? You’re so good,” Patton asked. Virgil shrugged his shoulders in response. He kinda wanted an excuse to stop talking about it. Logan seemed to realize this.

“I believe we should not push him or the situation, if he does not desire to continue discussing it,” Logan said calmly, seemly finally breaking the silence.

“Oh, what if we tell scary stories?” Patton suggested. Virgil perked up.

“That sounds like a great idea,” Virgil said.

“Actually, I have quite a good one to tell,” Roman said. Roman turned off any light, making the room pitch black, and turned on the flashlight and shone it under his chin, illuminating his face. He began his story:

“A bride was waiting at alter for her fiancé. She waited for hours, but it turns out her fiancé was across the street getting married to her _sister_.” Patton made a sympathetic sound. “So, that night, she put her wedding dress back on. She went down to the basement to grab an axe. She then made her way to where her ex fiancé and sister were staying, and found them asleep in the bed. She came up slowly to their sleeping forms,” Patton was now kind of snuggling against a blushing Logan, most likely because it made him feel better. Virgil sat watching Roman tell the tale dramatically with a smirk on his face. “And she chopped them to bits!” Roman said loudly, and Patton jumped. “Later, the police found the place, and next to the bed of which held the bloody bodies – or what was left of the bodies – was the woman in a rocking chair. Then, as they came in, she jumped out the window and killed herself,” Roman said, finishing the story. Patton was curling into Logan, obviously frightened, but that was the fun of it. Virgil scoffed.

“You got that story from Hey Arnold,” Virgil said with a smirk.

“Well, it was still a good story, and how come you know Hey Arnold?”

“I know my cartoons, Princey,” Virgil said. “Just ‘cause I don’t actually have a TV doesn’t mean I don’t find ways to be cultured. Okay, my turn. Gimme the flashlight.” Virgil put the light under his chin, and illuminated his face. He began his tale:

“Some say this rhyme doesn’t mean anything. Others are not so sure…” He smirked.

_“There was a man who lived in Leeds,_   
_He filled his garden full of seeds._   
_And when those seeds began to grow,_   
_It was like a garden filled with snow._   
_But when the snow began to melt,_   
_It was like a ship without a belt._   
_And when the ship began to sail,_   
_It was like a bird without a tail._   
_And when the bird began to fly,_   
_It was like an Eagle in the sky._   
_And when the sky began to roar,_   
_It was like a lion at my door,”_

Virgil then proceeded to drop his voice low and deep, but not to low to be silly, just enough to be frightening. Patton curled closer to Logan.

_“And when the door began to crack,_   
_It was like a pen knife in my back._   
_And when my back began to bleed,”_

He quickly switched the flashlight off, plummeting them in complete darkness, and continued.

_“I was dead, dead, dead indeed!”_

As soon as he had said it Virgil jumped at Roman, who let out a loud – kinda high-pitched for a boy trying to play it cool – scream. The flashlight switched back on to reveal a frightened Patton, who was snuggling into a very calm, but also very red Logan. Then there was a completely horrified Roman. The only noise that came was from Virgil, who was doubled over in laughter at Roman’s reaction.

“What the heckity heck?” Roman asked, staring at Virgil, who was wiping actual tears from his eyes.

“That is for tricking me into singing in front of everyone,” Virgil said. Roman scoffed, but didn’t protest. Patton yawned, which was a quite contagious yawn, because everyone yawned soon after.

“Well kiddos, I guess that means it’s time to hit the hay,” Patton sighed contently.

“Yeah, I could go for some sleep,” Roman said.

“That sounds satisfactory,” Logan stat

“Yeah, I’ll try to get some sleep,” Virgil said.

The boys got into their sleeping bags and began to curl up into the comfort it provided. Patton had already gotten near Logan and latched on for dear life. Logan patted Patton’s hair, which came to Patton’s delight. Patton was quite the snuggler. Virgil and Roman were near each other, since Patton and Logan were practically spooning each other, as Virgil had joked to Roman. But when Roman fell asleep, he somehow inched closer to the emo. Virgil was the last awake, as per usual, and was still awake when he felt Roman cuddle him. Virgil thought it was adorable how he was such smol bean sometimes. Virgil felt like he’d have to protect him. He slowly sunk into a deep and comfortable sleep. This sleep wasn’t filled with nightmares. It was the first night in what felt like years since he had such calm and nice sleep, nightmare free. It was just… peaceful.

\------

When Virgil woke up, the first thing he noticed was he was unreasonably hot. The heat was overwhelming. He then noticed it had to be coming from Roman. Virgil knew he couldn’t go back to sleep, and he was rather uncomfortable. So, Virgil tried to wiggle out of Roman’s grip, and tried his best not to wake him. Roman mumbled something in his sleep. Virgil took a pillow and slide it into Roman’s arms, to which he instantly squeezed and smiled in his sleep. Virgil chuckled at that. It was funny to think that they were recently such strangers. Now it felt like he’d known Roman and the other boys for years, even though it was only, what, a month? Two at most? He honestly didn’t keep track.

Virgil saw that Logan was still fast asleep as well, with a _massive_ case of bed head. Patton, on the other hand, was already gone. Virgil quickly got up, only to remember that he should probably be careful, because he was still in the pillow fort. He peaked out of the tent, and heard some subtle noises from what he thought was probably the kitchen. He walked out quietly, as to not wake the nerd and drama actor, and headed to the kitchen. He walked into the kitchen to see something he expected, but was still surprised to see.

Patton was up to _something_ in the kitchen, only Virgil didn’t really know exactly what he was doing. He did know that it smelled _incredible._ Patton turned around with a mixing bowl in his hand, and was surprised to see the emo standing at the edge of the kitchen.

“Oh, hey kiddo!” Patton said quietly. He didn’t want to wake the other.

“Hey Pat… whatcha doin’?” Virgil asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

“Ah, I didn’t wake you, did I?” Patton asked slightly worried.

“Naw, I pretty sure it was Roman. He’s a furnace,” Virgil yawned.

“Are Lo and Ro still asleep?” Patton asked.

“Yeah.”

“Alright. Do you wanna help me with this?”

“I mean, sure but what is it?”

“Breakfast!” Patton giggled. “Oh, but don’t go near the oven… it’s a surprise.” Virgil complied, still too tired to argue or ask.

“So, what exactly are we working on?” Virgil asked, heading over to the counter, of which had an organized mess.

“Well, I wanted to make birthday pancakes like on Uncle Buck, but that might not be so reasonable…” Patton said, vigorously mixing the bowl of pancake batter.

Virgil froze. He completely forgot today was their birthday. It’s weird, sharing the birthday with his three new friends. It’s not that he was upset in any way that he shared, in fact, it was nice. He was really glad, because he might get to know what it was like to have a birthday. He knew about birthdays and birthday parties, mostly because of glimpses on TV, though he knew that it wasn’t the most trustworthy source. He knew presents and cakes, but never experienced them for himself. Not for other’s birthdays, and not for his own. This was going to be the first.

The two boys got their birthday breakfast ready. Patton worked on the pancakes, while Virgil worked on bacon and cutting fruits. Patton had finished making all the pancakes, which he stacked high on the plates. Patton had pre-made things for it, like a fruity syrup and whipped cream. After stacking everything on the plates, Patton poured four glasses of orange juice and Virgil poured four glasses of milk, so everyone had a pre-made option. They set up the table - which looked amazing - and then a timer sound went off in the kitchen. Patton jumped up.

“Oh! Um, Virgil, you stay in here, I don’t want you peeking,” Patton said, and ran off into the kitchen. Just then, Roman and Logan came out of the bedroom into the dining room, where our emo stood.

“Mornin’,” Roman yawned, stretching his arms.

“Greetings,” Logan said, hiding the sleep in his eyes. Virgil was slightly disappointed to see Logan had brushed out his bed head, though he was still in his pajamas, same as Roman, Virgil, and Patton. The two newly awoken boys’ gaze slid to the table.

“What’s that?” Roman asked, clearly intrigued.

“ _That_ would be our birthday breakfast!” Patton cheered, coming out of the kitchen. “Virgil helped me make it.” Virgil shuffled his feet.

“It smells and looks _amazing_ ,” Roman said, practically drooling.

“This seems very amazing, indeed,” Logan agreed.

“Well then, let’s dig in!” Patton said.

The boys rushed to the table. They talked and laughed while they ate the heavenly food. Patton got syrup _everywhere._ He managed to get it in places you thought he couldn’t, he was so messy. At one point he managed to get his hands stuck together, quite literally. Everyone got a little messy, even Logan. When done, Logan and Roman offered to clean the plates, considering Virgil and Patton worked on the meal.

“Hey Pat, where’s your dad?” Virgil asked, now awake enough to realize he hadn’t seen all morning.

“He’s uh… he’s still out,” Patton said, then he smiled. “That’s just him. He didn’t wanna disturb our birthday”

That didn’t settle right with Virgil. There was something off about the way Patton said it, too. He was going to ask more about it, but Patton was walking off into the kitchen as Logan and Roman came back out.

“Hey Pat,” Roman said as he walked by.

“Hey guys,” Patton said, then his gaze went back to Virgil. “You guys stay in here, I’m gonna be a bit in the kitchen.” Patton walked into the kitchen, and slid the sliding door shut, which was a door Virgil neglected to notice.

“Well, what do you suppose we all do while we wait for Patton?” Logan asked.

“Something about the presents,” Roman said hopefully.

“Yeah, maybe get ‘em together?” Virgil asked shyly.

“I suppose that will do.”

They boys went back to the bedroom and pulled out the presents they would give. Logan’s was wrapped in simple dark blue wrapping paper, and wrapped precisely. Roman’s was wrapped in gold and red striped wrapping paper with cute red or gold bows on. Virgil’s was wrapped in old newspaper, because he couldn’t get ahold of actual wrapping paper, but it was wrapped nice and neat. Each boy piled together the presents of one another. They carried them downstairs into the living room. When they had set them down, Patton came out of the kitchen, with a sparkle in his eyes.

“I’ll be right back,” Patton said, and ran off. He came back with presents wrapped messily in rainbow wrapping paper, and organized them into the correct piles. Then, he went beck to the kitchen. He came back with something big and covered, and set it on the coffee table.

“What’s that, padre?” Roman asked curiously. Patton just smiled at Roman as he revealed the spectacular cake which stood before them.

It was a large layered cake. The icing was plain white, but covered with glittery sprinkles. There were eighteen candles already on it. Patton lit the candles.

“Make a wish guys!” Patton exclaimed happily. They all leaned in and blew out the candles. Virgil didn’t really now what to wish for, he finally had what he needed. But, just or the sake of it, he wished something to make it feel secure.

_I wish that I can know if this is real or not before I get too attached._

Opening his eyes, Virgil saw that nothing had changed except that the once lit candles were now letting out a tiny bit of smoke. Well, there was one candle still alight, but that was it. He smiled, maybe it really is real.

Roman blew out the last candle, only for it to relight again. They heard giggles come from Patton.

“Cursed trick candle,” Roman pouted jokily.

Patton cut open the cake to reveal that the layers of the cake were each a different color, creating a rainbow. Patton must’ve worked really hard on this.

“Hey, Pat, no offense, but I’m still full from breakfast,” Virgil sighed.

“Oh, I know, I just really wanted to see it sliced,” Patton said. “I’m still full as heck too.”

The group was quite a sight. The boys were happy. It was just one of those moments that couldn’t be described, only felt. It that feeling was really nice. Well, it was. Suddenly, Virgil felt a sense of dread crash land into his gut. By the looks of the other’s faces, it looked like they felt it, too, but were trying to hide it.

That feeling lasted for only a moment before everything went black.

\------

As Virgil opened his eyes the first thing he noticed was he was no longer at Patton’s place. He saw the sunlight leaking through the trees down towards him and right in his eyes. He squinted as he sat up, trying to get his bearings. He was in the woods, and a place he didn’t know. The only familiar things was a book laying before him. 

**_Your Spirit Animal._ **

He picked it up, and stood up. He looked around, and felt a pair of eyes on him. He dared to turn around, and something flew past him as quick as light. He jumped and looked around. There was a figure hiding in the shadows.

All you could see it had rather large blue wings, and glowing icy blue eyes.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh yeah in case you’re wondering that rhyme thing Virgil did was from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark so if you caught that that's cool.
> 
> Freeze Your Brain - Heathers link: 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAOxJv96VE8
> 
> Cas out


	5. Black No. 1. – Type O Negative

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeee guess what? I put one of my favorite OCs in here… I had planned this, but it’s finally here. This is actually this first work of anything I put her in. Like, I haven’t even draw her or wrote much about her at all. I’ve done that to all my OCs but it’s just procrastination… Anyway, enough of that! (She is Norwegian, and I'll put translations at the end)

 

“Virgil?” the figure asked, remaining in the shadows. Virgil didn’t move, nor did he respond. He simply stood wide-eyed.

It walked forward and into the light, revealing itself. It was a woman, no older than the age of twenty-three. She had long, slightly curled, beautiful black hair, and her eyes glow a magical icy blue. She wore a simple black hoodie and torn black jeans, and black combat boots. Her nails were painted black, too. She carried a duffle bag over one shoulder. A defining look was her wings, which were behind her, the same color as her eyes. They looked as if they were made of ice, but it still managed to have soft looking feathers, assumingly made of frost. They were currently folded, allowing her to come off as relaxed, but they were still slightly intimidating to Virgil, who had never seen shit like this outside of the movies. It all seemed fake and unbelievable. But at the same time, too realistic.

“Takk, Odin, gutten lever,” the woman said, further approaching.

“Um…” Virgil said, backing up.

“Han er også pen,” the woman said, stopping as Virgil bumped into a tree.

“Who- who are you? How do you know my name?” Virgil asked, obviously shaken.

“Dritt. Jeg glemte at han er amerikansk,” the woman said, and put her face into her palm with a sigh. She looked up and stayed lost in thought for a moment, before saying, “Is this better?”

“Um…”

“Yeah, I believe that’s English,” The woman said to herself. Virgil only now noticed that the woman had some sort of accent. Realization suddenly dawned on her face. “Oh, you asked who I am… you can call me J.”

“Um… hi,” Virgil mumbled.

“Yeah I bet your confused. How far back do you remember?” J asked.

“W- what?” Virgil stuttered.

“Look, I’m gonna help you, okay? But to do that I need to know how much you remember of yesterday.”

“I- uh- I remember sitting around my friends, and talking, and then suddenly I got this really bad feeling then it all went black and I woke up here and why I am telling you this who exactly are you or what are you I’ve never seen something like you what the hell happened-”

“Calm down, I’ll explain if you’ll listen, got it? I know you just meet me, but I promise I’m just trying to help you. It’s my job to help people like you. Like us.” Virgil was shocked.

“What does that mean?” He asked. J plopped down onto the grass.

“Sit down. This is gonna take a bit to explain.” Virgil did as he was instructed.

“We’ll start simple. It’s magic, man. Like, full blown. Every person is born with the capability of magic. But few have the ability and mindset to believe they can. So, most stay oblivious. Some of us discover we have abilities one accident. Some of us search for our abilities. Some of us are forced to know our abilities. We all have different variations of it. For example, my main power is ice. I can control ice and create ice out of thin air. I can also fly, but that was a more recent discovery. Everyone has their own main ability, but we have side ones as well. But usually those abilities can help each other become stronger. It really helped that I realized that I can create wings from my frost in order to help me fly for longer periods of time, but I can also hide them,” With that said, her wings disappeared. Virgil opened his mouth to question, but J interrupted and held up a hand.

“Questions at the end. I need to get through this as quick as possible. But that’s enough about my dritt. We are here about you and your newfound friends. It’s not just a simple coincidence that you were all born at the same time to different mothers. You probably have thought on that, but not too much, right? Well, you and your friends are a once a century occurrence. See, you four are linked. Obviously. Alone, you are powerful, yes. But put together, you are even more powerful. Nearly unstoppable. You are very rare.

“During the beginning of time, there were four main elements: Earth, Fire, Air, and Water, kinda like Avatar. These four elements were created as one being in the beginning. These four elements, as one, would choose a woman to give birth to a being who could control it. Use all the power of it at their will. But that much power in one being became far to dangerous. This one person couldn’t handle all the power alone, and was starting to be manipulated by darker creatures. But before falling to far into the dark, the person with the power purposely spit into four, and each piece held the power of one element. Each element shot around mother earth quickly to find a host. They each found women who were ready for a child. At that point, they settled inside the child forming in the mother’s womb. Those four children are soul linked. They become some of the most powerful beings in the universe. This cycle repeats every century, creating somewhat of a balance in the world.

“So, being so powerful and rare, there are many who wish to stop or corrupt you. Everyone will want you on their side. If you choose against their side, they will want you eliminated. You can be a big threat or a big help. But you must choose the correct side, or all hell will break loose. It is a lot to put on someone’s shoulder, especially considering you literally just turned eighteen.

“But like I said, things will want you corrupted or eliminated. That’s what happened back there at your friend’s house. A dark force was there. Here’s the deal: For you four, the four born at midwinter, will be protected from any dark force until the age of eighteen. It is a magical force field of sorts. Obviously, that doesn’t protect you from everything. You still live a basically normal human life until eighteen, because that’s when your powers can develop. It just keeps things that are literally trying to murder you or get directly inside you head. But the moment you turn eighteen, the force field disappears. Creatures wait until it falls, and immediately attack. But it was just one thing this time, which isn’t normal. Usually it’s multiple small things, but this is one powerful creature. It’s claimed you four, and others are scared of it. You’ll need to watch yourself from it.

“That’s all I can think to tell you. Questions?” J finished.

“Uh, yeah, like probably a billion that I don’t know how to ask.”

“Well, take it slow. One at a time.”

“Where are my friends?” Virgil asked, panic rising.

“Honestly, I don’t know exactly. I only have an idea on which direction to go to find them. We have to go find them before something else does, though. We can go now, if you want.”

“How can I trust you?”

“Well, you’ll have to trust you gut. I can try to convince you to trust me, but I doubt it would work. Trust is something that must be earned, and I can try to earn yours if you give me a chance. If you don’t want to come with me, it’s fine. I can’t stop you. I am just trying to help you,” J said.

Virgil contemplated. He didn’t really know what to do at first. He had only just met her, and things were unspeakably crazy. But he had no idea what was going on, and he needed to find he friends. J seemed to understand the situation, and he felt that maybe he could go with her for now. Of course, he didn’t trust her at all, but it was probably his best beat right now.

“Okay,” He said.

“Okay, that’s it?” She asked.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

They walked for a bit in silence. Then, Virgil couldn’t take it anymore. He tried asking his questions, but it came out as gibberish as he didn’t know how to ask them.

“Woah, woah, calm down. I get it, I was the same way when I first found out.” She said.

“I just don’t know how to ask… um… what exactly are my powers?” He asked, happy he could form a sentence.

“Well, I can’t tell you exactly what they are, you have to figure that out. But I can give you and idea of what it is. See, the four born midwinter every century, there main power is connected. They each have one of the four main elements. So, your main ability should be Air, Earth, Fire, or Water. I have a feeling that yours is probably Water, though. Then they can also shapeshift into their spirit animal. That’s really all I know. Do you have an idea of what it might be?”

“Well, I’ve been seeing stuff about ravens…” Virgil mumbled.

“That’s a start. Have you had any weird dreams lately?” J asked.

“Uh, yeah, actually. I have been having this nightmare a lot. There is like this cawing noise of a raven and I’m drowning…” he trailed off.

“That’s not a particularly good sign, but at least it can give you the answer. I your spirit animal is a raven, and I think that also means I’m right about the Water thing.”

Virgil suddenly realized something. He reached into his hoodie pocket and pulled out that book Angel gave him about spirit animals, how that picture of a raven appeared on the cover. He remembered that incident that happened with the water. He remembered how the raven seemed to almost haunt him. How Angel had called him _little raven_.

“You’re starting to understand, I take it,” J giggled.

“Yeah- I- I think so. It’s all super weird. But I’m worried about my friends…” Virgil said.

“You know, I wouldn’t be too worried. You’d know if they were in danger. They are probably just lost and confused.”

“Wait, what do you mean I’d know?” Virgil asked.

“Your souls are linked. Bonded. Connected. You can feel if the other needs help, if they are hurt, how they feel, anything, and they can for you, too.”

Virgil stared off into space as they walked.

“Can I ask you a question?” Virgil asked.

“You just did,” J responded.

“I mean, can I ask about you?” J seemed slightly panicked, but tried to hide it.

“I- I guess. What’s up?” Virgil could see she was worried. He started simple.

“You’re not, like, from around here, are you? You were speaking a different language, plus you have an accent.”

“Uh… you noticed my accent? Is it really that obvious?” Virgil nodded. “Yeah, I’m not. I’m from Norway.”

“Norway? Really?” Virgil asked, shocked but excited.

“Yep,” J said, popping the p. Virgil hummed.

“How did you find out you had powers?” Vigil asked. J seemed hesitate.

“I… it was one of those ‘I found out on accident’ type of situations…”

“Could you tell me the story?” Virgil pressed. He wanted something to talk about other than the situation at hand. It was freaking him out and he wanted to take his mind off of it.

“We should set up camp. It’s getting dark,” J said, throwing her bag to the ground.

“What? Aren’t we supposed to get back to civilization or something?” Virgil asked.

“You really don’t know what happened, do you? How far from home you actually are?” J asked, pulling supplies from her bag.

“I… what _did_ happen?” Virgil asked.

“Come here and help me set up camp and I’ll tell you what I can.”

Virgil came over and took hold of the supplies J handed him. They started with trying to set up the tent.

“I only have one tent, so we’ll have to share,” J said, hammering a nail at the base. Virgil looked at her with a curious and questioning stare, which J didn’t even have to look at to understand. She sighed.

“I really don’t know much about what happened, I wasn’t there. But, what I do know is what I bothered to learn. I kept track of when you four are born every century, looking at old dates and recordings, and when I learned that you four were almost eighteen I kinda… freaked. Nowadays are completely different. Beings have started to care less and less about each other, unless one gets in the other’s way. That’s why evil creatures have had easier times snuffing out the light. I’m one of the few who care. I’m not the greatest, but I try my best. So I went looking or you guys.

“Luckily, you four had already found each other, making it a lot easier on me. It would have been a lot harder if you four were born in random places, scattered all over the world. That’s happened before, and it’s a crazy ordeal. Of course, I couldn’t pinpoint your location in time, so you did get attacked. A large blast of magic went off, and you all went in four different directions. I have yet to see exactly where the blast went off or what it looked like, but your powers must have activated, which did send away the threat, but it also shot all four of you away from each other. The four corners, the four guardians of the watchtowers… you were shot West, because you are Water, as I had guessed. Your friends went North, for Earth, South, for Fire, and East, for Air. I simply had to choose a direction, because I couldn’t find all four of you at once. I mean yeah it sounds stalker-y but I’m human. Stressed, depressed, but trying my best.”

By now they had gotten the tent set up, and were working on the campfire.

“What made you choose to go West?” Virgil asked.

“I dunno. I prefer Water to most. Just felt like it,” J said. They had finally gotten the fire going, and were staring into it.

“Could you tell me the story of how you found your powers?” Virgil asked again.

“I know you want to get your mind off the situation, but that’s not a good story for tonight.”

“What about your name. Your real name?” J sighed.

“Yeah nobody wrote ‘J’ on a birth certificate unless they were dick holes,” J said, earning a giggle about her choice of cuss words. “I actually never had the chance to have a real name. That’s a long story I’d also rather not tell. But, I gave myself a name. I have no idea why I gave myself this name, but it just stuck. The name I kept was Jones.”

“Jones. I like it,” Virgil said.

“Ya know, you seem pretty calm about all this, kid,” Jones said suddenly.

“I’m surprised I haven’t had a panic attack yet,” Virgil said. They both laughed. It was really weird how relaxed he was around her. It’s not like he even knew her well. Hell, he just met her. Maybe it was just because she was different. Not fake like everyone in his life was until he met Patton, Roman, and Logan. Patton. Roman. Logan. God he was worried about them. He hoped they are alright…

\------

Virgil was surprised how well he slept, considering the circumstances and the fact he already had sleeping problems. Well, he didn’t sleep _that_ well, who would in a time like this? He just managed to get a couple of hours, which was still incredible for him.

Virgil had woken up to hear something outside. He noticed that Jones was no longer in the tent. So, presumably, she was the one making that noise. It was talking. She was talking to someone or something. But why? What about? To who or what? Or maybe she was just talking to herself. Virgil was curious and peaked out to see.

Virgil saw Jones sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree. She was talking to something. He couldn’t see what it was, but he could tell she was no longer speaking in English.

“Han er en god person, jeg kan se den,” Jones sighed to whatever she was talking to, assuming she was talking to something. “Zip det du fucker,” she said sharply.

Virgil leaned farther out of the tent to see what Jones is talking to. She looked over in a direction when she talked, so he assumed something was there. Maybe she was just talking gibberish to a squirrel or something.

But he didn’t see _anything._

Was she really just talking to herself? The way she talked it seemed like she was talking to something. Maybe Virgil was just making a big deal about this. He moved just a bit more, and his head poked out of the tent. Suddenly Jones’ head snapped up in his direction, and she quickly stood up. The action was so quick, and it totally freaked Virgil out, who had been startled into falling backwards into the depths of the small tent.

“Dritt. Sorry Virgil. I didn’t know it was you,” Jones said. Her accent seemed… a bit thicker? Maybe it was because she had been talking in her native language just now? Virgil wrote it off as he sat up and exited the tent.

“Who were you talking to?” He asked.

“Oh… um…” she looked back for a moment, then looked back at Virgil. “I was just talking to myself.”

Yeah, totally not suspicious.

Virgil was about to as a bit more on the matter, until Jones’ head snapped over at a nearby bush, and suddenly he eyes started to glow that bright, icy blue as a dagger of ice appeared in her hand.

“Woah, what is it?” Virgil asked.

“Stay behind me,” Jones said, he wings starting to appear, shielding Virgil. Her eyes didn’t move from the bush. 

The bush started to shake ever so slightly. Then, something slithered out of it. Jones tensed up at the sight. She muttered something along the lines of “I knew it,” under her breath. Virgil wondered what the big deal was and why she was so freaked about such a thing. He remembered what all he’d recently been through and gave Jones the benefit of the doubt. But it was just a yellow and black snake, what harm could it do?

“It was you who did it, huh? I had a feeling it was you,” Jones said, eyeing the snake. “Leave us be. And don’t try going after the others.”

The snake smiled an evil grin. Or, at least, it looked that way. Snakes can’t smile, right?

Suddenly, black – with a tent of yellow – smoke started to circle around the snake, forming a pillar. The pillar began to rise, only a bit higher than Jones. When the smoke cleared, it revealed a man dressed in black, with a black cloak which went no farther down than his four arms and was lined in yellow. He wore a black bowler hat and held a black and yellow can, a yellow snake head at the top. His most distinguished look was the scar that ran down the side of his cheek, of which matched the scales and purple ring around his eye.

“Oh, my dear, you mussst know it’sss my job to get rid of thessse thingsss,” the man spoke in a dark voice. He seemed to have trouble with the ‘s’ in Virgil’s mind. Though, the hissing did make sense after his snake like looks.

“Yeah, and it’s my job to stop you from doing that,” Jones said as her dagger began to grow and shift, turning into a sword. Her wings were spread out in a fashion to protect Virgil, who was completely dumbfounded at the situation at hand.

“Only one of usss will sssucceed, and I don’t plan on being to failure,” the man hissed, leaning forward.

“It used to not be like this, ya know,” Jones said in a tone that meant she wanted everyone to hear, but mostly spoke to the man. “You were on the same side as us. Your only movements with evil was when you fought them. You fought with me and the others before. What changed?”

“I joined the winning ssside,” the man said.

“Dee, please, come back with us. You know I don’t want to fight you,” Jones pleaded

“Sssuch a shame then, that you’ve turned sssoft. And besssidesss, don’t call me that,” the man hissed. “It’sss Deceit.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, you’ve met Jones. She was actually my first OC, but I’ve modified her A LOT over time just by thinking about her and being like “maybe instead…” kinda stuff. And you got Deceit now!
> 
> Oh, yeah. Translations:
> 
> Takk, Odin, gutten lever – Thanks, Odin, the boy lives   
> Han er også pen – He is also pretty   
> Dritt. Jeg glemte at han er amerikansk – Shit. I forgot he was American   
> Han er en god person, jeg kan se den – He is a good person I can see it   
> Zip det du fucker – Zip it you fucker
> 
> FYI: Dritt = Shit. She'll probably say that often and I'm not going to remind you.
> 
> Cas out.


	6. Intermission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay this chapter is an intermission to basically give info about characters, ‘magical rules’ or whatever, and maybe some other stuff. It’s just to clarify things that I may or may not have written into the story already. The next chapter will go back to the actual story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cas.exe has stopped working. Reload? y/n Reloading… Information found.  
> I just found out I have the same birthday as Thomas Sanders. I don’t know how to react.

** Character Abilities:  **

**All Four (Virgil, Roman, Logan, and Patton):** Basically, about every century or so, four people are born anywhere on the globe. These four people have bonded souls. Their abilities come forth on their eighteenth birthday, which for all four is mid-winter. Each will have the ability to bend one of the four main elements which match their personalities. Earth, Fire, Air, Water. (Each ability can effect eye color, which makes it a bit easier to spot what kind of element said person may bend.) Each ability connects them to one direction, North, South, East, and West. North for Earth, South for Fire, East for Air, and West for Water. They also will have the ability to turn into their spirit animal. An example of this is how Virgil’s is the Raven. (No, I’m not telling you the others’ yet, it’s a surprise.) They have extra, smaller abilities, which are simply part of the element bending or animal shapeshifting, but they have to figure out how to do these things. And, as said, these four people have bonded souls, so they can sometimes feel what each other feel. It’s kinda hard to explain, but it’s like twin-tuition, or being empathic to certain people. You’ll probably learn more about this as the story continues.

 **Virgil:** The ability to bend Water (connected to the West), and the ability to shapeshift into his spirit animal, the Raven – Magic, the messenger of the great mystery, a change in consciousness.

 **Roman:** The ability to bend Fire (connected to the South), and the ability to shapeshift into his spirit animal, the [spoiler.]

 **Patton:** The ability to bend Air (connected to the East), and the ability to shapeshift into his spirit animal, the [spoiler.]

 **Logan:** The ability to bend Earth (connected to the North), and the ability to shapeshift into his spirit animal, the [spoiler.]

 **Deceit:** Can shapeshift into his spirit animal, the Snake. (Which isn’t very common for people other than the our born on mid-winter). Also, he can kinda… disappear/turn into smoke, somewhat like the demons on Supernatural. ~~Main ability is unknown.~~

 **Jones:** Main ability is manipulation of the element Ice, such as bending ice already existing, or create ice from any source from water, even the molecules in the air, or the bit of water in one’s blood. (I can’t remember which episode it was, but it was in the first season of Full Metal Alchemist that some guy did that, and used his own blood.) Often uses the ice to create spikes out of thin air whilst in combat, or creating a sword or other weapon out of ice (it’s magic ice so it’s harder to break, duh). Another thing is her wings, which she created from frost and ice, that is to help her in long distance flight, give power boosts, and give off intimidation. She can somewhat fly without her wings, but it’s a lot easier to use her wings when traveling by flight.

**Other Characters Undetermined.**

** Character Design: **

**Virgil:** Tends to wear whatever clothes that fit him as long as he can get away with wearing a hoodie somehow. Hoodies are Virgil’s soft spot and safety blanket. It’s not like he’s wearing the hoodie to hide anything like in some fics – cough cough – it’s just something that makes him feel comfortable. Later in the story he’ll get the chance to wear what he wears in the video, but for now don’t forget that he is an orphan that doesn’t get cared about so it’s not lie he can afford great clothes or makeup or anything. He’ll get more of his actual outfit design later in the fic. Virgil is also rather pale and skinny, also skin and bones. Partly because he doesn’t often eat and partly because his foster parents may take his meals away because they are selfish pieces of dritt. But his eyes, his eyes are a sort of blue that can be soft like the ocean or sharp like ice.

 **Roman:** Often sports a typical red and white letter jacket with gold linings and regular jeans or skinny jeans depending on how he feels. His hair is always brushed to perfection, and he is rather well built. Even though he typically wears regular shoes that match his outfit, he has, on occasion, been caught in some pretty nice red or black heeled boots. Which, by the way, he totally slays. Roman’s eyes are a fiery red-orange tent, that soften like flames. They can be soft like a dying ire, or sharp and filled with a flame.

 **Patton:** Wears his typical attire from the show. The cat hoodie around his neck and a blue shirt and such. He has blonde curly hair that is almost impossible to tame. He has silvery eyes that seem to swirl like wind.

 **Logan:** Wears his typical attire as well, with his nice little neck tie and glasses. He has black hair darker than a starless night often slicked back and out of his face, for it is efficient. His eyes are a deep earthy green that beautifully contrasts with his black hair. His green can vary from sharp emeralds to soft blades of grass.

 **Deceit:** Mostly wears what is seen in the show, though added a black cane for some class. He has black hair and a yellow highlight in it. Both of his eyes are a sharp yellow, which, on rare occasion, which turn bright red when angered enough. Both of these things are because I believe in the Deceit and Bill Cipher similarities. Which, of course, this is what we can see so far…

 **Jones:** Wears mostly black, as mention before, like a black hoodie and black skinny jeans, black hair – which isn’t even dyed – and even black nails. It’s not _just_ because she likes the style of black, it’s also a camouflage technique, considering she often goes out at night, and black can help her camouflage anywhere, not just in the woods. She can hide in plain sight, like crowds and such – which she hates – and other places (though it helps to be in the dark).  Like Virgil, she wears the hoodie as a comfort tacit as well. She never puts her hair up, just out of habit ~~and probably lack of self-esteem like me.~~ (Side note; she often talks/specifically cusses in Norwegian, being her first language and all.) Her eyes are and icy blue, that can soften like clear water or harden and sharpen like picks of ice ready to stab the enemy.

 

 

** Set-Up/Unintended Character Spiel: **

**So Far in the Story:** As you may have put together, it is mostly just a small, (isolated), town. Now, it does certainly have _a lot_ of forestry, which is one of the few things Virgil actually likes about the town. He can wander in the woods for hours on end, isolating himself from people - because, hey, people suck - without his foster parents ever worrying. At least some of his older foster parents would ask about why he had been gone so long. They never notice his leaving now. The school isn’t very large, and Virgil’s least favorite place, besides his foster home. He does like to go to the Seven-Eleven in the middle of the night when he can’t sleep, though. He typically goes all JD and gets a slushy of whatever kind is served there. He actually got the idea from JD from the musical Heathers. He often does this, and learning that Seven-Elevens are almost everywhere, it was his constant, just like JD, who he related to a lot. There is s mall, but like everything, it’s small. Virgil never dared to go into it until he was invited to go with Patton, Logan, and Roman (because he didn’t want to risk actually spending money he shouldn’t there). The foster home is a small house on the edge of the town that is one of the few two - story homes in the town, though the actual structure is thin. The house isn’t taken care of very well. It's usually always dirty and smelly, so Virgil escapes that place as often as possible. Roman, and Patton have similar house structures, like it is throughout the town. They are similar to Logan’s, too (but you haven’t been there yet). They are basically the same homes as to save money when they were built. They aren’t cookie cut, but just simple. Though, to Virgil, they are amazing compared to his current and past foster homes. Note: This section was meant to just be the layout of the town, but I started spieling about Virgil, so I’m changing the section title.

 

 

 

** Extra Notes: **

 

  * I know it seems like I gave more detail to Jones than anyone else about the abilities thing, but I have a reason. See, she’s one of my OCs, so I’ve had a lot more time to think about her. But the main reason is that the story is still developing the Side’s abilities, and I don’t want to spoil the story. Jones’ powers aren’t a secret, but the story is going to unwrap the other’s abilities.



 

  * There are going to be ships, but it’s not going to be a lot in the story. Its just gonna kinda build up to it on the side. 



 

 


	7. People are Strange – The Doors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess what? I’m working on another AU! [John Mulaney Voice] Horary! I’ve got about two chapters written out and stuff. So, that’ll be out sometime. 
> 
> Also a certain someone makes a cameo…

 

Neither Virgil nor Jones got anymore sleep that night. After what Deceit had said, he disappeared. Like, literally disappeared into thin air. Well, there was the black and yellow smoke which circled him, but he still disappeared. Instead of sleeping, Jones ended up giving some backstory which circled around Deceit.

Jones had met Deceit like she met a few other people with… abilities. The simplest way to put it was like in the book _Miss Peregrine’s Homes for Peculiar Children._ It had been like that for a while. People with abilities would be found by people who understood such abilities or had some of their own, and opted to help those who didn’t understand. When Jones had first found her abilities, it was a time of a hidden war. A war that which only people with abilities of these could see. Darkness was beginning to take over, corrupting or killing children who have yet to understand. The thing was, Jones got lucky, because she was found by someone who could understand these types of things. Just barely, but it was better than being swept up by darkness. When she met Deceit, he was an orphan like her. He never gave his name, only the nickname ‘Dee’, like he had done before. – That name, Dee, it sounded familiar to Virgil. – They were taken in by the same people. They practiced their abilities, and resisted darkness. But one day something changed.

Jones kept this part of the story vague. Just simply stated that something went terribly wrong. Deceit was corrupted, and she never saw him again.

\------

The next day, they walked what felt like an endless walk. Jones can fly, yes, and offered to carry Virgil (whom she could like carry for a while; he was very light), but he refused, which she understood. That would just be super freaking awkward. They were both fine with walking.

Virgil froze, hearing something familiar in the distance. It was that soft, relaxing sound he would go to to calm down. He turned to Jones, who seemed to be hiding what she thought behind a mask of neutral. But she could hear it too. Suddenly, Virgil remembered.

“I know where we are,” he breathed, and started a dash in the direction of the noise. He thought he heard Jones call after him, but he didn’t hear. He ran until he found what he was looking for. The little spot with the pond, the little water fall spring making the sound that lead him back. The feeling he got when he came here didn’t change, but it felt… stronger. He smiled, it felt weird, but good at the same time. He heard a gasp behind him that snapped him out of his thoughts. He turned around to see Jones with her wings out wide and eyes bright like the sky itself, only lighter.

“How… how did you find this place?” Jones asked quietly. Virgil simply shrugged. It was nice here, but he didn’t want to stay. He finally found a course, so now he would follow it. He needed to get back to his friends.

“C’mon, I know where to go,” Virgil said, and headed towards the foster home. He heard Jones mumbling things under her breath. He saw the foster home up ahead, and, honestly, it was the first time he was actually even slightly happy to see the damned place. Knowing where he was meant it would be easier to find his friends. He heard yelling from the house, which was slightly unnerving, but not uncommon. He just about got to the front door – which was wide open, oddly – only to see no other than the Roman being – literally – thrown out of the house. It was like the iconic scene in Fresh Prince of Bel Air when Jazz gets thrown out of the house. The door was then slammed shut. Virgil ran up to Roman, who was so dazed he didn’t even notice the approach.

“Roman!” Virgil said, startling the theater geek, who instantly jumped up into a standing position upon seeing the emo.

“Virgil!” Roman said, and actually hugged Virgil. This completely caught him off guard, as Roman noticed, and released him.

“What was that all about?” Virgil asked.

“I was looking for you guys and I remembered your foster home and thought maybe you’d be there but then they just got pissed off and told me they didn’t want you to come back and threw me out and-” the words began to spill out of Roman’s mouth. “I was… worried.”

Jones watched the interaction, keeping her distance with respect.

“So, wait, they kicked me out?” Virgil asked, and Roman nodded. “Well, good riddance! I’d rather live under a bridge than with them, but people like CPS kept coming after me.”

“Okay, that aside… what the actual heck happened?!” Roman freaked. Virgil turned around to face Jones – who Roman neglected to notice until now – for help with answering.

“Who-”

“Roman,” Virgil said. “This is Jones, the only person I’ve found who has any idea what’s going on.”

Jones began to clarify the situation as quickly as possible. Of course, they were walking away from the house as the conversation went. Their direction was headed East, for Air, as assumingly that would be Patton, who would need more help than Logan. Logan could likely handle himself, though he was probably a bit freaked as he was all logic, and all this was highly illogical.

Virgil threw one last glance at the direction of the foster home. Yes, he hated the place and would gladly have watched it burn. But, he still felt a pang of something in the back of his mind that made him sad to leave, like every time he left a home. He was finally starting to dig some roots. Something told him that he might never seen that place again as long as he lived.

\------

Things were still tense. Virgil was only acting calm on the outside. On the inside, he was totally panicking. Like, he thought he might literally self-implode from stress. He was following a complete stranger after a crazy accident that has separated him from his friends and apparently someone – or something – is trying to literally _murder_ him and his only friends on the planet, and it is all tied together by, yeah, magic. What the hell. The only thing keeping him from disaster was Roman. Roman was the first friend he had found after whatever the heck happened at Patton’s house. Roman was the only person he could trust at the moment. And even then… could he really trust Roman?

These thoughts floated around in his mind, and he was actually proud of himself or not just breaking down in the middle of… well, he didn’t have a clue what to call it. Maybe… maybe all this shit just hasn’t really hit him yet? Maybe he’s just still in shock, and at any given time he could totally lose his freaking mind. His heard about that sort of stuff. People’s minds not being able to understand the situation at hand, so the mind simple blocks it out in order to coupe. This though made him even more stressed. That meant that whoever he was with at the time might think he was totally fine until he just loses it. _The freaks freaking out,_ he thought.  He might start to freak out and lose control, or just curl into a ball and cry while he tried to breathe.

Funny. These thoughts made him so worried, he didn’t even notice the way Roman looked at him.

Roman didn’t know much about Virgil’s mental state, only that it was dangerous ground. He would tread carefully, not wanting to hurt or upset Virgil in any way. But he could see the panic flowing through Virgil. He had to admit, as a wannabe actor himself, Virgil did a good job of concealing it. He seemed totally calm. It was just, Roman could just feel worry flowing from him. He wanted to help his favorite emo. He turned to Jones – who he and Virgil were following – to see if she had noticed, but she didn’t. Or maybe she did, but she was too focused, or simply decided it was Roman’s job to help Virgil, simply because Virgil trusts Roman far more than Jones. In any case, it was Roman’s current job to help Virgil.

Roman gently placed his hand on Virgil’s shoulder, doing his best not to frighten the anxious emo, though it he still earned a small jump from the boy. Virgil immediately calmed at seeing it was just Roman. Roman gave a sympathetic look.

“You okay?” Roman asked. He knew Virgil probably wasn’t, he just couldn’t think of another way to ask. Virgil snorted in response.

“I’m never okay, Princey,” Virgil said jokingly.

“Yeah yeah, but I can see those wheels turning in your head, Virge. You’re worrying about all the possible scenarios that could happen, and each time you think of a new one they get weirder and way less likely to happened, but the insane scenarios make you panic even more.”

“What are we gonna do?” Virgil asked suddenly, gaze at his feet as he walked. “Like, all this shit is happening at once and all of it is totally insane and unrealistic and I mean I was just starting to have a normal life with a job and friends and I don’t wanna lose that-”

“Virgil,” Roman said firmly, but still in a gentle tone. “It will be okay.”

“But what if-”

“No ‘what ifs’ Brad Pitiful, we are going to stay positive.” Roman stopped Virgil’s train of thought. Virgil was about to speak more when Jones just stopped, causing Roman to run into her back, as he was not paying attention. Virgil stifled a giggled at the flustered theater geek.

“Why’d you s-”

_“… do not have time for this, please stop it, it’s simply a dog. We need to figure out what is going on, we need to find the others- Patton what are you doing? No Patton wait-”_

Roman and Virgil jumped upon hearing the voice, as it sounded like Logan. Their suspicions were confirmed as he said Patton. Jones spoke up, seemingly snapping out of whatever ignore-the-prince-and-the-emo trance she was in.

“That’s them, isn’t it?” Jones asked, pointing in the direction of the park. It was, in fact, them. Roman and Virgil now understood why Logan was saying those things, and they had to muffle their giggles. As they approached, they saw a very irritated Logan standing next to a very happy Patton – or a happy pappy, as he would have said – rolling around on the ground with a golden retriever slobbering on his face. Logan looked up at the approaching trio.

“Patton, look,” Logan said, finally getting Patton’s attention. Patton almost literally jumped in the air and quite literally ran over to Roman and Virgil and pulled them into a hug.

“OhmygoodnesswherehaveyoubeenIwassoworried-” Patton started rambling. If the Flash thought he was fast, he would still be beaten in a race against Patton’s words, which spilled rom his mouth with joy.

“Calm down, Pat, we’re alright,” Virgil chuckled. Logan approached.

“I am certainly happy to see you two. Do either of you have any idea what is going on? Also, may I ask who that is?” Logan asked, gesturing to Jones.

After they got the introductions done and the only known facts straight – heh. ‘straight’. – they came to the next question. How did Logan end up finding Patton already?

“A similar story to yours, Virgil,” Logan began, as he recalled the story. “Only this man was annoying.”

\------

Logan woke with a start. He sat up and looked around, but his vision was blurry. He searched for his glasses, but he couldn’t find them anywhere. He knew he was in new territory, that was certain. Only he didn’t know _where._ The last thing he remembered was being at Patton’s house, and then a sudden feeling of dread fall into the pit of his stomach. Logan stood up and tried to figure out what was going on.

Then he heard soft footsteps behind him.

Logan jumped and turned around to see a blurry figure approach from behind. It spoke up.

“Hey, calm down, jeez… you want your glasses or not, hun?” the figure asked as it held out something that Logan assumed was his glasses. Logan took the glasses and placed them in his face. He could make out the figure now. The man sported a leather jacket and large dark sunglasses, which made it hard for Logan to see the man’s face.

“Who are you?” Logan asked the man.

“Gurl, I’m not tell’n you that,” the man said, and took a drink out of a cup with a Starbucks logo on it. Logan swore that the man held nothing a moment before. “Although, Imma help you with someth’n, m’kay?”

Logan was getting quickly annoyed by this man and his annoying manner. Though, with the situation at hand, Logan listened. But still didn’t like him.

“Help with what? Also, I am not female,” Logan stated dryly.

“That’s not what I meant sweetheart. Anyway, I’m gonna help ya get back to your friend, so you can get back on your ‘track of destiny’ or whatever,” the man said, taking another sip of his drink. This confused Logan. What does he mean by ‘track of destiny’? “As in, ‘I am going to lead you in the correct direction to find your friend, Patton’” the man said in a monotone voice.

“How do you know Patton?” Logan asked, suddenly defensive.

“Woah woah, calm down Lolo. I really don’t feel like explain’n this stuff to ya, that’s not my department. So here, think fast,” the man tossed something at Logan, who clumsily caught it. It was a dark blue stone pendant with silver chain. “Wear that, it’ll help ya. It’ll tell ya where Patton is.” Logan didn’t trust it at all.

“Lolo? And how can a pendant help me find Pa-” he was interrupted by the man sighing as he came up and put it around Logan’s neck. “Hey-”

“There,” the man sighed contently. The pendant around Logan’s neck started to move in the air, pointing East.

“How-”

“Don’t question it. I gotta go, you find Patton, because I like, totally ship you two.”

“What?”

“Noth’n! Also, if you see J, give ‘er this,” the man said, placing a piece of paper in Logan’s hand and disappearing. Like, he literally disappeared. Logan was dazed for a bit. He finally decided to follow the pendant, wherever it lead him.

\------

“I believe that’s it. When he meant ‘J’, was he refereeing to you, Jones?” Logan asked, looking at Jones.

“You said sunglasses and Starbucks, right?” Jones asked.

“Yes.”

“Then yeah,” Jones said, taking the paper that Logan handed over. “Did you look at it?”

“I felt it rude to pry, but I did glance at it when he handed it to me. Although, I do not believe it was in English.”

Jones read the note and starting giggling. The giggling got louder and harder.

“What does it say?” the four boys asked in unison.

“Dear Evan Hansen, you all spoke at the same time. That’s awesome,” Jones giggled.

“You know Dear Evan Hansen?” Roman asked.

“What’s it say?” Virgil asked again. Jones handed him the note.

 

**_Jente, du skylder meg noen Starbucks for dette. Forresten, de er søte sammen. Skip?_ **

**_-R_ **

Virgil put it into Google Translate and read the note.

_Girl, you owe me some Starbucks for this. By the way, they are cute together. Ship?_

_-R_

“What does that last part mean?!” Virgil said, a blush coating his face. When Roman read it, his face went totally red. Logan and Patton were confused by bits of it. Jones simply laughed in response.

Even though it was embarrassing, Virgil felt better with laughs from his friends after the initial confusion.

Virgil felt… well, to him, it felt… right.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! You made it this long into the story! You deserve a Patton cookie for surviving through this mess. But really, thanks for reading and any support you give, it’s appreciated. I want to respond to every comment I get, but sometimes I might not because I’m such a socially awkward mess I don’t know how to respond. So I’ve read all your comments.
> 
> “Peace out bitches.” - The red-haired lesbian fangirl.
> 
> Cas out.


	8. Requiem – Dear Evan Hansen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flashback time. 
> 
> Warnings: Bullying. 
> 
> Boi, this gonna have a sad.

 

Virgil wasn’t sure what to think of this. Well, actually, he _did_ know. And he knew he didn’t like it. Sure, he hated the foster home and was kicked out after turning eighteen anyway, and sure, he was used to moving around a lot, so he tried his best to never get attached to a place (even though he has failed before). But thing was - well other than the fact that he had a job he actually enjoyed - this would affect his friends. His friends had homes and families. Virgil didn’t want them to lose that, just because of all this insane stuff that’s happened. See, the thing was, Jones said they could no longer stay in this town.

They had to move.

For Virgil, if it was just him, he would have been fine doing it. The only thing he would miss about this town would maybe have been his job, and that’s because he actually liked his boss. It was a nice place to work. But if he _had_ to leave it, like in such a scenario, then yes, he would be okay doing it. Virgil has learned to not get to attached to a place, because he was always being moved around. But he had learned this the hard way.

When Virgil was younger, no older than perhaps ten, he made a tried to make friends in the foster system. He never had the opportunity to make friends before. But this was his first time being in a foster home. Both of his parents had recently died in a car accident. So, he ended up trying to befriend people in this first foster home. There were kids older than him who would bully him. So he started to avoid people. That’s when the new kid came.

\-----

_“Everyone, this is our newest member. Meet…” the woman running the foster home spoke. The thing was Virgil instantly stopped listening to the woman. He didn’t like her and doesn’t bother to remember her name. It’s because she acts nice, but she doesn’t care about anyone in the foster home. Virgil was used to people not caring about him, though. It didn’t really hurt him anymore._

_Anyway, he was more focused on the boy in front of him._

_The woman had her hand on his shoulder as she spoke about something like ‘treating him nicely’ and all that bull they give on the first day. The boy was shy, just like Virgil. The boy hid half of his face in the woman’s side. He glanced around the room nervously. Virgil glanced at the older kids who often bullied him. They kept straight faces, but he could see it in their eyes. Virgil has learned to see that look in people’s eyes because he’s seen it to often. They were looking for violence. They were already mentally planning how to hurt this boy, because he looked vulnerable. Virgil didn’t want this boy to be hurt more than he probably already was. The woman popped his bubble of his thoughts by clapping her hands, having taken her hand away from the boy. Though the boy still clung to her._

_“Alright, you boys go get on with your day!” she said, and was to walk away when she noticed the boy still clinging to her. “Dear, you can’t keep ahold of me forever.”_

_The boy let go of the woman’s skirt and quickly pulled his hood over his head, covering his face. Virgil thought maybe he was really just shy, because Virgil keeps his hood on a lot when he’s shy. But the way the boy did it, it was like he was hiding something. The boy made a beeline to the direction Virgil assumed was were his room was. He glanced at the older boys, who looked to be contemplating whether or not to follow the new boy. Virgil knew what they would do if they chose to follow, so Virgil did it first. He didn’t know if it would influence their decision, hell, they might want to do it more if he went, but he didn’t care. He wanted to help this boy because he knew no one else would._

_The boy went to Virgil’s room._

_They were going to share a room._

_Virgil went in and was a little bit calmer because he had an excuse to be in the room other than just following the new boy. He could state that it was his room, too. He entered to see the boy curled up on the opposite side of the room from where Virgil slept, the only thing decorating it was a bag of belongings to the new boy, and the boy curled in a ball in the corner of the bed. Virgil didn’t know what to do. He knocked on the open door. The boy looked up, then quickly put his head back down. He mumbled something inaudible._

_“Umm… hi?” Virgil asked quietly. “I uh…” he sighed. He didn’t know how to approach the boy. Virgil went over and plopped on his bed. He looked at the boy._

_He heard sniffles from the boy._

_“Are you crying?” Virgil asked, and immediately regretted it. Virgil felt from experience that when you go to a room to cry, it usually means you don’t want anyone to know you crying. He quickly spoke again. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked, you probably want to be left alone. Jeez, Virgil, you’re so stupid,” he mumbled the last part to himself. The boy didn’t look up, but he said something in a very quiet voice._

_“When your falling in a forest, and there’s nobody around, do you ever really crash or even make a sound?” Virgil stopped._

_Virgil walked away from the door, toward the new boy who had finally spoken. The boy looked up, his face still hidden in his hood. Though, Virgil could still tell that he was, in fact, crying. He didn’t blame him; he didn’t know what this boy had been through, but landing himself in an orphanage means he went through something that he shouldn’t have had to. Virgil understands this from experience. Virgil carefully approached the boy, to see if there was anything he could or should do. The boy simply stared, remaining quiet once more. Virgil sat at the end of the boy’s bed._

_“I know that you probably went through something bad, and I know I probably will never be able to really understand, but… I mean, if you need someone… I’ll be here for you,” Virgil said quietly to the boy. He wanted to befriend this boy. He felt like it was a responsibility to take care of this boy. He didn’t want the boy to go through what he went through. At least, not more. The boy nodded. It was subtle, barely noticeable, but it was there. Virgil smiled. Maybe he could really have a friend in this place… They slept bed that night, curled together for protection._

**_\------_ **

_The next morning, Virgil woke to find that his new friend was already gone. Then with that thought, he realized that he never even asked for a name. He got up, still in his day clothes from the previous night, and walked through the halls and down the stairs. He thought maybe the boy was having breakfast and didn’t want to wake Virgil. Though Virgil felt something was off, and the feeling grew at the sight of an empty breakfast table. No one was eating breakfast. He checked the clock. It was past time for breakfast. There were dishes in the sink. He could hear the foster care woman in the bathroom, playing with her makeup. No other sounds within the house except his quickening breaths. Everyone was probably outside. He hoped the new boy was alright. He walked outside to hear a quiet scream. He bolted in the direction it came from. All he saw were the older kids huddled at the corner of the house, corning something. Or someone. They were laughing and beating at whatever was there. He heard them call names, but mostly things like ‘freak’. Virgil went over to see it was, in fact, the new kid. When the older boys saw Virgil, they laughed._

**** _“Well well, if it isn’t the other weirdo,” one of them chuckled. “Put him with his friend.”_

_As it was said, Virgil was grabbed by his hood and tossed on top of the other boy. He quickly scrambled off of him, and checked if he was alright. The boy hid his face, and curled in on himself. Virgil felt hot rage burn though him. He looked up at the chuckling boys, and shot up and punched one right in the face with a satisfying crunch of the other boy’s nose. The boy shouted profanities as he fell to the ground, cupping his now broken and bleeding nose. Virgil gave a death glare to the other two boys, who seemed suddenly less prideful. They grabbed the boy with the broken nose and ran away to most likely tell on him, but he didn’t care. He bent down to check on the boy._

_“Are you okay?” Virgil asked. Virgil lifted the boy’s face so he could see. The first thing he noticed was that a full half of his face was covered in severe burn marks. He was at first scared that the older boys did it, but he noticed that they had time to heal. They were older. Probably when he had parents, or whoever he lived with before he came to the foster home. He then noticed one eye swelling into a black eye, a few cuts, and some bruises forming. Tears tracked down the boy’s face. He said nothing. Neither of them did. Virgil pulled the boy into a hug. “You know, I never caught your name,” he chuckled softly. The boy shifted in Virgil’s hold._

_“Y-you c-can just c-call me Dee, I d-don’t like my r-real name,” the boy whimpered softly._

_“Well, in that case, you can call me Anx,” Virgil spoke softly._

_They stuck together like glue. They supported each other. This lasted for about a year. Then, Virgil was told that he had to move. No one told him why, only that he was being transferred into a different foster home. He didn’t want to leave Dee, and Dee didn’t want Virgil - or Anx - to leave. The day before Virgil left, Dee had gotten him the first book of Virgil’s favorite book series. See, other than music, books were Virgil’s escape. Virgil couldn’t get ahold of really any music in the foster system, so books worked just as good. Dee had seen the book and gotten it as a farewell gift. Virgil was scared to leave Dee alone with those people, and Dee was scared to leave Virgil - Anx - alone too. Virgil didn’t have a choice, so instead he chose to never get too attached to a place because it hurt too much to leave. Virgil built many walls after that, but building anxiety up as well with every new wall._

_Although Virgil has kept ahold of that book for his whole life. He has read it more times than he can count._

\------

Virgil blinked.

He was crying.

He quietly wiped away the tears falling down his face. He looked around the motel room they chose to stay at for the night. It was darker than he remembered. He was truly absorbed in the memory. Everyone else was already asleep. He was still sitting up in his bed. And he was still crying. He wasn’t sobbing. It was just silent tears, slipping down his face. His thoughts went back to the issue at hand. The fact that he had to move away.

But it wasn’t just him.

It was his friends, too. His friends, Patton, Logan, and Roman, had to move away, too. His friends that actually lived here, that liked it here. They had actual homes to sleep in. Families to come home to. Virgil didn’t get any of these things. At least, not like his friends. It’s not that he was jealous. Well, anyone might be a little envious if they were in the exact position as Virgil, but it’s not like he didn’t like them because of it. He was glad his friends had families. He was still concerned about them, because it didn’t seem like they had the greatest homes or families, but they still had childhoods. They often discussed their young memories. Times their parents took them to the park. Times their mothers let help with the baking and cooking. Times their fathers let them join in fixing the car or building a birdhouse. Playing games. Having playdates. Eating homemade cookies. Bedtime stories. Warm hugs and soft kisses before bed.

Virgil never experienced these things. But at least _they did._ He was just glad they got to enjoy that. Virgil never truly had a family, no matter what the reports say. No one knows the truth, and no one cared to know the truth about his parents. But it didn’t matter. He felt now he had a family who really cared about him. And he cared deeply for them. He didn’t want to lose them, but he also didn’t want them to suffer. He didn’t want them to lose what they had. What would they tell their families?

He stopped fighting the tears that fell. It was dark. Everyone was asleep. No one could see. He was glad for that.

Virgil didn’t want anyone to see his pain.

\------

The next morning they got up quite early. Except for Virgil, who didn’t sleep at all, so it didn’t really count. They tried to figure out a game plan of sorts, because even though Jones is more… used to this type of thing, it’s not like she would know what to do in this sort of situation, either. They obviously couldn’t tell the truth, because who would believe that? They could, perhaps, tell bits of the truth, only using believable parts, and replacing the rest with… normal things. They had to tell their family, because they couldn’t just walk out on them. Right?

They didn’t want their parents to worry, and didn’t want to waste the time of police officers and other people like that who could be somewhere they actually needed to be. But they also had no clue how long they’d actually be gone. A week? A month? A year? More? This was nerve-wracking for everyone.

The only idea that came to mind was a Senior Year trip. They could say that there was a special – selected group of four kids in their school that could go on a Senior Year trip across the country to tour colleges. This plan was absolutely ridiculous, but it was also their only plan.

So that’s what they went with.

\------

First was Patton’s house. They all decided on that being the first place to go because of… well… they couldn’t keep ignoring it. They had to go see what happened. And Patton explained that his dad probably wouldn’t care where he went anyway. This concerned the group, because it sounded like Patton didn’t have the greatest dad. But they’d get to that later, because, knowing Patton, he would – kindly – refuse to talk about it. So, Patton’s dad would be the easiest to convince, hopefully. Although, if the place was like the wreckage of Tom, Edd, and Matt’s home after The End Part Two – eh eh? – then it might just be impossible to convince Patton’s dad of anything.

They all expected some sort of damage to the house, based on what happened. So, the surprise truly showed when they walked up to Patton’s undamaged - almost better than before - home. It wasn’t like it was a bad thing. The boys thought that maybe it wasn’t as bad of an… incident as it had seemed. But when they saw the true surprise and suspicion on Jones’ face, it made them worry. They began to wonder if something really _did_ happen that they couldn’t see yet. What of all the damage was on the inside? And what if it was just burnt to a crisp?

They walked inside, Patton in the lead – because it was his house – and Jones by his side, in case something were to jump from the shadows. As they walked in, it seemed… normal. Everything was in place. It was actually looking a bit better than before. It was so… odd. Erie. This made the group’s suspicion only grow.

“Dad?” Patton called out. Maybe he wasn’t home? But the car was parked outside. His wallet and keys were on the counter. His shoes in the doorway. “Dad?” he called again.

“Who are you? How’d you get in?” a voice called through the house. It was Patton’s dad’s voice.

“What? Dad, it’s me, Patton.”

“Who?”

“...You’re son, Patton. Dad are you okay?” Patton asked, panic and worry rising in him.

“Patton, I think we should go,” Jones suddenly spoke.

“What? Why? I need to figure out what’s going on with my dad.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about him,” a sly voice cut through the air.

“Who’s there? Show yourself, fiend!” Roman spoke up.

“If you insist,” the voice spoke. Out of the shadows emerged no other than Deceit. Roman, Logan, and Patton gasped at the sight of him, being their first greeting.

“What are you doing here?” Jones hissed. No, literally, she hissed at him first.

“Oh, just cleaning up my mess. Hope you don’t mind,” Deceit said smoothly. Virgil couldn’t help but remember the feeling he got upon seeing Deceit the first time. It felt like… he just seemed… familiar. Virgil couldn’t quite put his finger on it. What was it that Jones had called Deceit?

“Cut the dritt, what did you do, Dee?” Jones spoke again. Oh, she called him Dee. Deceit hissed about not calling him that as the name struck a bell. Dee. It bounced in his mind.

“Well, I did fix the house quite nicely. It’s better than before.... although, it is a shame that your family won’t remember you even exist.”

“Excuse me?” Logan said. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I erased you from their lives. Objects, memories. Any evidence of you existing, really.”

“How could you? You know the repercussions of that,” Jones said angrily.

“You know I don’t care anymore, Jones.” Deceit “Don’t even try to contact them, the end result may not be… very pleasant.” Deceit turned to Virgil. “Of course, _you_ probably don’t have to worry about it. You don’t have parents or families. By the way, do you still have that book I gave you?”

Virgil realized who it was. But it couldn’t. It couldn’t be…

The shock must have shown on his face, because a sly smile spread across his face.

“Recognize me now, Anx?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plot twist! Did you catch on throughout the flashback? Like, before a spoken name.
> 
> Cas out.


	9. Let Me Drown - Soundgarden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Nightmare (similar to last time). It has a bit more detail to drowning.

 

Virgil was frozen were he stood. Patton was scared. Logan and Roman were confused. Jones looked disappointed. Deceit held his sickly grin. Sirens went off outside. Patton’s dad had called the police, reporting a group of intruders in his home.

“Let’s take this somewhere more… private,” Deceit smiled as he snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, they stood in the quiet woods, no longer hearing sirens. Everyone’s mind raced on what to do. All but Virgil. Virgil stood in shock as the news sunk in. The only person that could count as a childhood friend was now trying to kill him and anyone else he cared about in his life. Who would have thought?

“Oh, my dear Anx,” Deceit said quietly, almost sympathetic. “It’s been a long time.”

Virgil didn’t speak, nor did he move. His face said it all. Contorted in confusion, desiring answers, while eyes showing the pain and betrayal of which was supposed to be hidden.

“How do you know our Virgil?” Patton asked protectively, finally breaking the silence of the group.

“We have a past…” Deceit began.

“Deceit, why did you do this?” Jones asked bitterly.

“I don’t have to tell you anything!” He snapped. “I will not go into a villain monologue! Oh, and Virgil…” Deceit snapped looked at him once more. “I will have a talk with you later, Virgil, so be looking forward to our more… private reunion.”

With that, Deceit disappeared.

“Well, isn’t that just a punch in the pants,” Jones sighed.

\------

So, even though Deceit was infamous for his lies, hence the name, he had actually been telling the truth. Well, at least about the ‘erasing the boys from their families’ lives’ thing. They went around trying to test this. They knew Patton’s dad’s mind had been erased. Jones had flown around the house to look through the always open window to Patton’s room. It was bare. Empty. Everything was completely gone. Even the furniture. White walls and no carpet.  It was as if they had just built the room. But that wasn’t the most surprising part. The surprising part was how little Patton was shaken up by being erased from his father’s life. Patton was the most emotional person the in group, even though sometimes he hides his real emotions with smiles and jokes. But this wasn’t hiding it. It was genuine. Patton wasn’t all that bothered by it. But it wasn’t something they could dwell on. They had to check Roman’s and parents and Logan’s mother.

Roman’s parents were still out of town. Roman tried calling them. After multiple calls, they picked up, and seemed rather angry. They asked why he was spamming them. Roman didn’t stay on the phone long. Jones checked his room. It was bare. A similar thing happened to Logan. They knocked on the door, and a rather intimidating woman answered the door. She didn’t recognize them. She simply asked very firmly what they wanted, which was when Roman spoke up, saying they had the wrong house. Jones was in the back, checking the bare bedroom Logan once slept in.

They even checked on Virgil’s boss, Elliot, at _The_ _Sherwood Café_. Not a single memory of Virgil. Not a single piece of evidence of him ever working there. Deceit had gone to great lengths to erase them from the lives of everyone in the town. That even included their school. Their names removed from roll and anyone’s memories. What was the motive behind this? Why did he do it?

After the initial shock had passed, they realized that even though this was beyond ideal, at least they didn’t have to explain why they would be gone so long. They will manage to get their family back, but for now, they will have to take care of their famILY. 

So, they left town.

\------

He opened the last bag to look at what he could find. He had already gone through everyone else’s things. Some would say that it wasn’t right, an invasion of privacy, and so forth. He didn’t care. It’s not like there was anything _that_ private, right?

Wait, why would _that_ matter? He was just trying to find anything useful to him.

In one set of things, he found lots of books. Like, _a lot_ of books. There were a lot of informational books, yes, but some of mythology and things, too. He didn’t really pay attention to all of them, because he quickly got bored of them. He found other simple things most teenagers had. But by the things he found, he could tell this was the nerd of the group. That was that Logan kid, right? The one thing he found interesting, though, was the little flower crown made of a pattern of dark and light blue flowers. It was actually very neatly done. It was kept neat because of the fact that whoever this guy was, he had cared about the crown enough to put it in a small case. Written on the case was something about a guy named ‘Patton’.

Patton was the dad figure, right?

He looked at it closely. This guy must like this ‘Patton’ fellow.

Next he found what he assumed to be Patton’s things, judging by how childlike it was. He rather liked Patton. He was probably his favorite out of the new friends Virgil made. Patton was funny. He found plenty of things like stuffed animals and plenty of photos. How did he manage that many? He obviously like capturing the moment. This kid even had a scrapbook. Cute. He had books, too, even though not many and most of them were very childish. He did find one that surprised him to find in Patton’s things. It was a rather thick science fiction novel. There was obvious evidence of Patton reading it.

He wondered if there was a connection to Logan about this.

The next was full of things that any theater nerd would _sell their soul for._ Autographs, rare merchandise, man this kid has been places. Many posters and Disney merchandise, too. He had a few stuffed animals, too. There was a lot of art supplies as well. This kid had to be a theater nerd, most likely actually in theater, but was really into art. His name was Roman, right? Yeah. He thought Roman looked like a jock, not a theater geek. Though, after remembering, he did seem rather… extra. Quite dramatic. He had called him ‘fiend’. He chuckled at the memory. He _did_ seem like an acting geek. He looked at a stack of drawings this Roman had. Most of them were fantasy settings, though a couple of them about his friends. There was a stack of drawings that circled around one particular friend. Virgil. Some were normal, others with a fantasy setting. He was almost proud of Virgil for this.

Roman obviously liked him.

But he didn’t _actually_ care about these things, he told himself.

Besides, that wasn’t what he was looking at now.

He was looking at Virgil’s things.

There wasn’t much, really. When looking through it, he thought that it was a shame he couldn’t get Jones’s things. Her things were probably what he was looking for, but she put a protective spell on her things. She knew better. An example of ‘she knew better’, he didn’t find what he was looking for in Virgil’s things, either. He really thought he’d find it in Virgil’s things, that book about spirit animals. But he knew Jones had it. She had gotten ahold of it before he could.

He did find a certain book.

In the bag was _Interview with the Vampire._ Maybe it was a different copy? He could have easily gotten a different one because he liked the story but not who he’d gotten it from. Nope. It was the same one he’d given him, note still intact. In fact, the page had been taped over a bit in order to secure it. There were creases throughout the book’s corners, were he had doggy-eared the pages. It was slightly worn, showing he’d read it multiple times. He wondered _why_ Virgil had kept the book.

Deceit wondered if maybe, just maybe, Virgil still cared.

\------

“I can do it,” Jones spoke confidently.

“You speak as if you have done so before,” Logan stated blankly.

“How’d ya know?” she asked playfully.

“Are- are you sure? This d-doesn’t seem r-right,” Patton stuttered.

“It doesn’t seem morally right,” Roman included.

“Guys, we have to find some way to travel other than walking, it’ll take forever,” Virgil spoke up. “Besides, the person who owns this car has it coming.”

“What does that mean?” Roman asked.

“Got it,” Jones said calmly. “Old cars are way easier to hotwire, but we may have to dump it later for a plenty of reasons.”

“Like what?” Logan asked.

“If someone comes after us, either for us or the car, or because it’s too slow – being old – et cetera.” Logan simply hummed in response to Jones’s answer.

The group hopped into the hotwired car, and whispered their finale goodbyes under their breathes to the town. They didn’t have any reason to stay, but good reasons to leave. At least, that’s what Jones said. They only had guesses why they had to leave town. Well, like as it was stated, they had no reason to stay now. Nothing was left here for them. Of course, they didn’t know where exactly they were going either. These were some of the factors that made Virgil very anxious. Like, why should they even trust Jones? They barely knew her. She could be part of those dark things trying to hurt them. Or maybe that was a lie. Maybe all of it was a lie.

But, then again, what other option did they have?

His thoughts were interrupted by a heavy sigh from the driver’s seat.

“I’m really sorry about all this, guys,” Jones spoke quietly. “You shouldn’t have to go through all this, especially for your age. I know from experience believe me. This is ridiculous. I mean, eighteen? You haven’t even graduated high school yet, and you’re already having to worry about saving your own skin! Can’t all this dritt give you guys a chance to learn? You haven’t learned your powers at all. You didn’t even know they existed until the shield went down and you were immediately attacked! It pisses me of that this would happen-” she continued to ramble, getting louder as she spoke, slamming the steering wheel.

“Hey, c’mon kiddo, it’s okay,” Patton put a hand on her shoulder from the backseat.

“How’s that?”

“Well, we aren’t dead,” Virgil inquired.

“We are uninjured, and our families are presumably safe from harm,” Logan corrected.

“Plus we found out that we have really cool powers we get to learn now, which is pretty awesome!” Roman said enthusiastically.

“See, we’re fine.”

Jones sighed. “Okay. Well, the ride there is gonna be a while…”

“Speaking of, where exactly _are_ we going?” Virgil asked.

“It’s a… I dunno whatcha call it, but it’s a shelter of sorts out were most folks don’t go so we won’t be bothered.”

“Sounds serial killer-y”

“Shut up, we don’t want ‘normal’ people to see you guys practicing your powers. That’s why it’s out were most people don’t-”

“SPIDER!”

Jones slammed on the breaks, jerking everyone forwards slightly. “What?!”

“I saw a spider!” Patton squealed.

“Where is it, padre?” Roman asked. “I’ll kill it!”

“No need, I’ve got it,” Logan said calmly, hands cupped together.

“Please do NOT tell me you’re HOLDING IT,” Patton screamed panickily.

“Why? What’s wrong with it?” Logan asked. “It’s just a spider.”

“Can _I_ hold it?” Jones asked.

“Guys, I love spiders and all, but can we please hurry up and get it out before Patton has a panic attack?” Virgil asked.

“Of course. Could someone roll down the window?” Logan asked. Roman leaned over and opened the window. Logan dropped the spider outside on the ground, and watched it run away. “It’s gone.”

Patton sighed in relief. “Thanks, Logan!”

“You are welcome, Patton.”

Jones started up the car again. “Virgil, could you dig around in my bag and find a cassette tape? Anyone will do.” Virgil nodded and pulled out the first one he found and handed it to Jones. “Thanks.”

Jones slide the cassette tape into the player. Being an old car, of course she’d use cassette tapes. Virgil wondered why she had any in the first place, though.

“It’s gonna be a while,” Jones mumbled. “Better at least listen to good music.”

The first song of the album _Superunknown_ – _Let_ _Me_ _Drown_ – began to play.

 

 ** _Stretch the bones over my skin  
_** ** _S_** ** _tretch the skin over my head  
_** **** _I’m going to the holy land_  
Stretch the marks over my eyes   
Burn the candles deep inside   
Yeah you know where I’m coming from

 **** _So give up the greed, you don’t have to feed me_  
Yeah, give up to fate, you don’t have to need me   
So let it, let it go, let it go, won’t you let it   
Drown me in you, drown me in you, drown me in you

****_Slip down the darkness to the mouth  
Damn the water burn the wine   
I’m going home for the very last time._

****

Virgil’s mind began to calm. Anxiety no longer troubling him as much as it was. Then, his mind began to wonder into a dream.

 

 **** _So throw it away, you don’t have to take me_  
Make no mistakes I am what you make me   
So let it go, won’t you let it go, won’t you let it go, won’t you let it?   
And drown me in you, drown me in you, drown me in you

\------

_The water was around him again. Rising slowly, starting at his ankles. Virgil got scared. He had this dream too often. He started to hear the familiar sound of a cawing raven in the distance, echoing across the water which was now mid-shin. Even though he was scared, like every time in this dream before now, he didn’t panic this time. He stayed calm. He listened. He knew that there was no way to escape this dream until it had run it’s course._

_So why fight it?_

_He stood still, which made it easier to notice how fast the water was actually rising. He looked around, to try and see if he could see anything at all. It was still too dark, but he felt something brush against his leg. The water was up to his knees now, and something was floating next to him. He reached for it. When he grabbed it, he found if was a feather. He assumed it belonged to the never-seen raven. **Of course,** he thought with a frown, **the only thing I’d find would be something like this.**_

_The cawing started to get louder as it got closer, still bouncing off of the water that was now to his mid-thigh. He strained to listen to the sound. Maybe he could make something out of it that he neglected to notice before? He stood still, listening to the sound as it slightly got louder, ignoring the rising water that was now to his hips. Was his mind playing tricks on him, or was the sound of the raven morphing into something else? It sounded like… like a person speaking to him. It was still to far away to make out, only bits of words being heard. But it sounded like a person._

_In his efforts to listen, he failed to notice that as the water rose, it rose quicker. It was now up to his chest. He tried his best to hear the words, understand what was being said. He started to worry, because, as before, he was being held down by his feet. He wouldn’t be able to float above the water that was now to his neck. He tried to speak, to yell, to scream at the voice he was hearing. No sound came from his mouth. His efforts were fruitless. He could make it out if he had time. But time was not on his side. He took in one final breath as he was fully submerged in the rising water. He held up his arm, trying to penetrate to surface of the water. But by now it was too late, his fingers barely brushing the air for merely a moment. He looked around in the dark water, trying to find something, but nothing was there. At least, that was what it was like for a short bit. Something gently floated to his face. He grabbed it, and found what it was._

_It was the necklace he found at the mall. The one that belonged to Angel._

_The one he had put in his pocket and had yet to remove._

_He kept a firm grip on it, as he had already lost the feather, as he also lost his breath. He was going to let the dark, cold water take him in once more. He was going to let the water fill his lungs before he woke as it had many times before._

_But, of course, that’s when his fight-or-flight reflexes kicked in._

_He couldn’t control his own body as it fought the invisible restraints, or as it trashed in the water. He wanted the dream to be over, and that meant letting the water take him over. But his own body wouldn’t let him. This is what had happened time and time again. He held his breath, thrashing, clawing, trying to escape to the surface, but to no avail. The water began to fill his lungs. But before it did, he couldn’t help but notice how quiet the cawing sounds had been this time around. He listened as he drowned, and heard sound. He could only make out one word._

**_Control._ **

_With that, the water filled his lungs entirely, and he lost the dream land of which he had been dragged to._

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let Me Drown by Soundgarden. Audio link (on YouTube, of course):
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqUrl2N4GE4
> 
> I bloody love Soundgarden. Superunknown was just my favorite album and totally Jones's type of music, I suggest listening to it. (Also kind ironic that Let Me Drown was the first song in the album and then Virgil has that water dream again. I promise that was not on purpose.)
> 
> Cas out.


	10. Shot in the Dark – Within Temptation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I literally couldn't think of another title but at least it's a Within Temptation reference. So there’s a bit a fluff we may have needed and then…  
> Warning: Blood, severe injuries, scars, slight flashbacks to abuse, mentions of PTSD and panic attacks, mentions of stealing, guns.

 

_“_ _Are you sure? I can certainly ‘take the wheel’.”_

_“I’m sure, Lo. Oh, wait, can I see that?”_

Virgil opened his eyes and blinked at the bright evening sunlight that shown through the car window and onto his face.

“Oh, you’re awake,” Jones said from besides him in the driver’s seat. Virgil turned to her and saw she was fiddling with what was most likely the pendant Logan had that lead him to Patton. Then he noticed there was no Roman or Patton to be seen.

“Where’s Roman and Patton?” Virgil asked as he looked at the backseats.

“They are currently using the restroom, it’s why we have stopped,” Logan answered.

Suddenly, a thought came to Virgil. He quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out Angel’s necklace. He studied it closely, then Jones spoke up.

“Where’d you get that?” Jones asked.

“I found it, in the mall,” Virgil said.

“Did you happen to get it after talking to a gypsy woman?” Jones asked.

“How did you know that?”

“Just a guess. Also, that’s almost an exact copy of Logan’s necklace he got from that R dude, with the Starbucks. You two had better hand on to these, they’re pendants to help you find each other,” Jones said as she handed back the necklace to Logan.

They waited for Roman and Patton to get back. As soon as they did, they heard Patton spieling about a dog he’d seen inside (presumably a service dog). Patton acted like it was the first time he’d ever seen a dog. It was ridiculous, but pretty adorable.

“Is he like this all the time?” Jones whispered to Virgil.

“Yeah, you have no idea,” Virgil snorted.

\------

“Oh dear oh dear ohdearohdearohdear-” He zipped through the forest, barely missing trees multiple times.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” a voice rumbled and echoed through the woods.

Emile looked down at the slash across his stomach. It was bleeding pretty bad. He was thankful that his wings weren’t so torn that he couldn’t fly, though he feared the more he used them, the more they might tear. But this was all he could do.

He prayed he’d make it.

\------

“Here we are,” Jones announced, coming out of the car. They drove into the woods on a little dirt road awhile back. Now, what lay before them, was a small log cabin, in a clearing. The clearing wasn’t all that big, just big enough to it the cabin. In fact, the car was parked between trees. “Oh, yeah, when we built it, we didn’t want a huge clearing, because it would be an obvious place for enemies to look,” Jones continued, pulling her bag out of the car.

Wait, why _did_ you say that? No one asked, and you can’t read minds.

“You know I _can_ hear you, right?” Jones asked to the anonymous voice- hey, stop changing my lines!

“Hey out there, I was wondering, do you really like reading this? I’m just surprised, but it’s not like I don’t like the support. We wouldn’t exist without support-” Jones, for the last bloody time, _stop breaking **the fourth wall!**_

“Jeez, sorry.”

“Jones, who’re you talking to?” Virgil asked.

“Oh, no one, just talking to myself,” Jones replied.

Finally. Damn.

Jones unlocked the door and let the boys in as she set her stuff down by the door. It wasn’t large or small inside, just cozy. There was a couch that faced a fireplace, and above the fireplace was a TV- holy shit, for real? They had a TV in there? Ahem, anyway…. And it opened up to a small kitchen/dining room place. A hall went down and had three bedrooms and a bathroom.

“Okay, so, there are only three bedrooms, so some will have to share, unless someone claims the couch,” Jones stated.

“Well, I think Jones should have her own bedroom, because this is more her place than ours, and for… ya know, woman reasons,” Roman stated a-matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, I agree with Princey on that,” Virgil said, slinking over to the couch.

“You know, Hot Topic-al, I haven’t heard you call me that in a while, I kinda miss it,” Roman said. Virgil refused to acknowledge a slight blush bloom across his face.

“Well then, I’ll start to make a habit of it. And nice use of a Supernatural reference, Castiel,” (cough cough) Virgil winked at Roman. Roman beamed.

“If you two are done flirting, it’s time to claim rooms,” Jones said, and darted off to the one she wanted, bag in tow. Patton grabbed Logan by the hand and dragged him off.

“C’mon Lo, you’re my roomie,” Patton beamed. Once they were gone, Roman turned to Virgil, who was sprawled out on the couch.

“So, you wanna bunk or are you taking the couch?” Roman asked. And was that- Virgil thought he heard hope in his voice as he asked to share rooms.

“I dunno. Depends how I feel later,” Virgil replied. Virgil was completely sprawled out over the couch, leaving no room for anyone else to sit.

“Would you move, please?” Roman asked, coming over and staring down at Virgil.

“Sure,” Virgil said. He wiggled a bit on the couch.

“What was that?”

“You asked me to move.”

“You know what I meant.”

“Oh, really?”

Suddenly, Roman plopped down on Virgil. He sat as if Virgil was the couch. He leaned on the back of the couch with a content sigh.

“Get off, you big lug,” Virgil said, shifting around under Roman’s weight.

“Not a chance,” Roman said. Suddenly there was a small flash of a camera next to them.

“This is adorable!” Patton squealed, taking more photos.

“Patton, no! No photos!” Virgil yelped, squirming more.

“Patton yes! More photos!” Roman giggled, now laying on top of Virgil. Virgil could now see Logan stifling a giggle, and could hear Jones somewhere laughing her ass off.

Then Virgil got an idea.

He shifted just right, and turned, using his arms to push Roman off (*gasp* Romanoff!). Roman fell to the floor with a satisfying thud. Now it was Virgil’s turn to start laughing. He got up and off the couch, and stood next to Roman, and stared down at the over dramatic friend, who was still sprawled out on the floor.

“Oh! The pain!” Roman started, letting his ‘actor side’ come out.

“Oh no! Gravity is starting to get stronger!” Virgil said as he fell onto of Roman.

“You’re kinda light there, Nani,” Roman said. “I think I can handle this.”

“What’s that supposed to-” Virgil tried asked, but before he could, Roman got up and before Virgil knew it he was being held bridal style by Roman.

Another flash.

“Patton, that better not have been what I think it was,” Virgil asked, freezing. Patton giggled.

“That’s gonna get framed.”

“Patton!” Virgil wiggled in Roman’s arms, a blush coating both their faces. Finally, Roman let Virgil down.

 “I got it all on camera.”

“Patton, why!?” Virgil yelped.

Everyone was laughing now, not able to control themselves at the scene that played before them. They all tried to catch their breath after a bit.

“Dritt.”

“What it is?” Virgil asked, turning around. He froze when he saw Jones’s eyes bright, icy blue. “Oh shit.”

Jones darted to the door, yanked it open, and ran out. She was saying something, but no one could make it out. Virgil then followed her out the door, to see her half carrying someone. The person had several injures, but one was bleeding severely from the stomach area, one hand holding the injured area. Their head was hanging down, so no face was seen, but instead bright, light-pink hair. The most noticeable thing was the slightly torn translucent neon pink wings with a single, bright golden star in the middle of each. They were almost like… fairy wings.

Jones brought the person inside, and laid them down on the couch. Virgil could now tell the person was male, and a very familiar face. Speaking snapped Virgil out of his thoughts.

“Dammit, Em, why do you keep doing this?” Jones said. She quickly yanked off her hoodie, and pressed it to the wound. She was in a black tank-top underneath that hoodie. Of course.

“S-sorry if I-I was ru-ruining th-the fun,” the man – Em? – stuttered. Apparently, he knew what they were doing in the cabin. Where they that loud?

“By the Norns, you need to stop apologizing for things,” Jones said. “Logan, I need you to apply pressure to the wound, and do not stop. I have to get the first aid out of my bag,” Logan immediately came over and tended to the wound. The man slipped from consciousness as Jones left to go dig through her bag for medical supplies. Virgil looked over at Jones as she was digging through the bag, and noticed this was the first time he’d seen her without a hoodie on. She pulled something out of the bag and came back to the person.

Logan moved out of the way as she came over and lifted up the man’s shirt. She pulled out a small flask and poured some of its contents over the wound. Was that- it was alcohol, most likely rum. She summoned a bit of ice and wiped at the wound, before pulling out a needle and thread and stitching it together. Yeah, she was stitching it together. The room was silent and tense as she sewed. Once she finished, she tied the string and snapped it at the end, and started to wrapped it up with whatever she had in the first aid. After the wrapping, blood seeped through the wrap, but only a bit. She checked his pulse, and sighed with relief.

“He’ll be fine,” she said. The room immediately lost some of its tension, becoming slightly calmer.

“Who exactly is he?” Roman spoke up.

“Emile Picani,” Jones started. “He’s a… sort of fairy thing, I’m not quiet sure, he doesn’t talk about it much- oh no he tore his wings, dammit.”

“I know that name from somewhere…” Virgil started.

“That makes sense, he is a therapist. Perhaps that’s how you know him?” Jones said, tending to other wounds.

“Wait, really? I think that was Elliot’s therapist, then. For real?” Virgil asked. Jones nodded in response.

Virgil studied Jones, noticing a few things the hoodie she often wore covered up. On her chest was an anti-possession tattoo, which Virgil knew about because of Supernatural. But what caught his eye was the marks around each wrist. Both wrists had an unnervingly red line that looped around the wrist, like someone had tied fishing line around her wrists and pulled until it cut the skin. Virgil shifted his gaze over to the man – Emile – who was lying on the couch before Jones noticed his staring. Virgil did notice the thick black choker around her neck, and began to build a theory. Did she have the same markings on her neck? And if she did, it was likely on her ankles, too. But from what?

The three other boys were helping Jones find things to tend to Emile’s other smaller – but still serious – wounds. Virgil walked behind Jones and saw that the choker was a black ribbon tied in the back. While Jones was distracted with tending to the fairy’s wounds, he quickly untied the ribbon. Jones jumped in surprise, and spun around to meet Virgil’s ocean blue eyes, clashing Jones’s eyes, one blue and one green. Then Virgil looked down at Jones’s neck, and saw a similar mark as around her wrists. Seeing it now, Virgil thought of it as more like puppet string than fishing line. Jones noticed what he was staring at, and jumped into a standing position.

“Dritt, you shouldn’t have seen those…” Jones said, averting her gaze. By now, everyone else had seen them too.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to draw attention to it, I uh…”

“No, it’s okay, just… let’s not discuss it right now,” Jones sighed, and went back to her work on Emile.

\------

Apparently, Emile was just another one of the many people – Virgil wondered if the term ‘people’ even applied to this – that Jones knew from whatever the hell she does in this magical thing. Honestly, Virgil had no idea what to call any of it.

After Emile had been taken care off – and Jones put on her choker and another hoodie – Jones told the group that they needed to go shopping because they had no supplies. They literally had nothing. Jones said they were lucky that the furniture had stayed. The group decided to split up. Patton and Logan would stay home to watch over the place and Emile, and Jones, Virgil, and Roman would go to the closest store to get supplies. Of course, the closest place was about an hour away. Yay.

They started the car and drove off. Virgil was wondering about the whole ‘magic’ thing. So, apparently, he could bend water. Cool. But Patton, Roman, and Logan all could bend a different element. Assumingly Logan bent Earth, Patton bent Air, and Roman bent Fire. It made sense based on their personalities to Virgil. But didn’t that have something to do with your signs? Virgil didn’t know much about his zodiac or about zodiac at all. He did know that each were connected to certain elements. But they were all born on the same day, December twenty first. Jones honestly didn’t know either, she just guessed maybe because it was a rare thing. It didn’t really happen often.

Oh wait, their birthday was three days ago. So now it’s the twenty fourth of December. Wasn’t that an important day to remember? Virgil wasn’t sure, maybe a holiday? He never celebrated holidays with his parents or in his foster homes, so he wouldn’t know. He shrugged it off as they drove up to the store that had some sort of sign about still being open, despite the date.

As they got out of the car (which was not their car, Virgil reminded himself), Jones said something about how she’d pay for everything, as to not worry themselves. Roman seemed truly flabbergasted by that statement.

“You shouldn’t have to pay for _all_ of it, I would certainly pay for it, all you have to do is ask-”

“I don’t think you’ll have enough money on you for all of what you need, but if you want to pay for something, that’s fine, as long as you have the money. If you don’t, chill, I’ve got it,” Jones interrupted Roman’s spiel, as she pulled something out of her pocket “Besides-” she said, waving the small card-shaped plastic around. “-I have a credit card.”

“But is that really _your_ credit card?” Virgil joked, but stopped when Jones slightly flinched. “Wait- that _is your_ credit card, right?”

“The owner had it coming.”

“Jones!” Roman gasped dramatically, but not as a means of a joke.

“I’m serious, now come on, we don’t want to take all night and then some,” Jones was heading towards the store, and Roman and Virgil soon followed.

They each got their own small basket and started getting supplies that they would need, such as medicals and foods. Virgil made sure to get plenty of water and healthy snacks, fruits and vegetables, because he knew Roman would get the junk food everyone wanted anyway, because he was good at that. But Virgil also knew it would be dumb to get _only_ junk. He walked down the aisles, as to double check for things they would need, and to check on the two people he came in with. Virgil saw Jones looking through medical supplies in one of the aisles, looking at things for different types of burns, which, apparently, involved the freezer burnt kind. She grabbed stuff for both.

“Really?” Virgil asked as she put them in her basket.

“Hey, I can’t say training will be easy.”

Virgil looked down at Jones’s basket, and saw food, and medicals, which they certainly needed. But he also saw alcohol, some cigarette packs, and plenty of ammo. He also saw some other weird things, but choose to just ignore it and keep looking around.

Virgil left as he continued to search the store. He looked down at his basket and noticed the way it was only full of necessities. He had seen things that would definitely not count as a necessity Jones’s basket, like the stuffed bear that had just a line a black thread instead of eyes and a bit of ragged cloth poking out at the top of his head. (What does he know, that could be a very important ~~Tomee~~ bear.) He also knew for a fact that whether someone was paying or not, Roman couldn’t resist getting something ridiculous. But for some reason, Virgil couldn’t bring himself to do it. Though, he did really want to when he saw the large, soft, black hoodie with a little purple storm cloud patch on the chest area, and the large purple flannel hanging next to it. He thought it would look really nice together, but he walked away to because he still couldn’t bring himself to grab it.

Maybe it was the years of conditioning from his parents and foster care systems that getting something he wanted was a waste of money, no matter how simple the want, or how much he may have actually _needed_ it, but they told him he didn’t really need it and he was just making up excuses to waste their money and-

Virgil stopped and took a deep breath. Not today. He wouldn’t let his mind get fogged up with terrible memories. He wouldn’t let himself slip into a PTSD episode, or a panic attack, or anything else. He was going to be fine, he was just shopping. He was just going to get a few things they needed, and go home and rest. But it wasn’t his home, was it? He never had a home, not really. But he refused to think about that right now. Jones was in front of him, and Roman was behind him, and they were checking out, about to finally leave. He even saw some makeup and other things come up on the counter behind him from Roman. He also called a win in not having to talk to anyone other than Jones and Roman here. Tonight was going to be a calm, easy is what he kept telling himself as he put all the bags of things together (totally not noticing Jones grab them and put them into her Mary Poppins bag).

That is, until the first gunshot went off.

Virgil’s head snapped in the direction of three masked men in the store, one with his gun raised. They started yelling demands to the few people in the store. They were robbing the place.

Of. Fucking. Course.

Virgil just wanted the night to go quietly, so he could go to sleep, is that too much to ask? He just wanted to get to the cabin to he could hide away from the world and pretend that none of this was happening. Virgil was _way_ too tired to deal with this, physically and emotionally. So much crap had been happening the past few days – and he barely had enough sleep to survive it all – and now this?!

The guns were aimed at them and some other people as they were lead to a corner of the store. One cashier, a young girl with a ponytail, who was checking them out earlier and defiantly didn’t want to be here from the get-go, was being held by the arm and a gun to her head as the man dragged her to get her to give him the money. Even though he was tired and had no idea _what_ to do, he knew they had to do _something_. He and Roman were as powerless as the rest, but Jones had magic, right? She had control of hers. Couldn’t she stop them? Virgil searched the crowd for her, as they had gotten separated, and saw her, gun to her forehead, standing in front of one of the other men. He crept closer ever so slightly, as to try to hear what was being said.

“I know what you are,” the man growled.

“Really? That’s great, is that why the cuff was necessary? You know, the cuff that blocks the flow a magic through a person?” Jones asked in a tone that told Virgil she knew he was listening and was trying to tell him she was powerless. The man smacked her in the head with the hilt of his gun, sending her crumpling to the floor, blood flowing from her head, and Virgil cringed at the sight. The man grabbed her by the hair, Jones fighting and clawing, but the cuff had let her drained, even though she could fight without her magic.

“Hey boys, after we’s done here, we can sell this one out,” he called. Jones was still fighting his hold, so he smacked Jones again in the head again, this time she went limp. He tossed her to the side, and tied zip ties around her wrists and ankles. Virgil noticed they proceeded to do this to the rest of the people, so as they were distracted, he slipped away and hide behind a mound of boxes.

Virgil’s heart was beating so fast, blood rushing and pounding in his ears. He tried to calm his breathing, but to no avail. He couldn’t slip into an attack now, he wouldn’t let himself do that. He looked around the best he could in his hiding spot for Roman. When he finally found him, he couldn’t hear what Roman was saying for sure, but he knew he was blabbing his mouth enough to severely annoy everyone, including the robbers. He would have laughed if not for the situation at hand. Suddenly one of the robber got quite sick of Roman, and slapped him hard across the face. Virgil found raw anger flow up in him again. That was the _last_ _straw_. He took a deep breath in and out, he knew he shouldn’t act rash like those times before, like at the café. But Virgil also knew he was the only one left who could do anything. He felt something bubble up inside of him. Something different, something new.

Something magical.

What happened next, no one saw coming.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally this story may actually be getting somewhere. Next chapter we may finally see some action! Honestly, this took a LOT longer to get to the sides using magic at all than I thought it would, and yet I still feel like I'm rushing the story. But, here you go, a new chapter!
> 
> Cas out.


	11. Bless the Child – Nightwish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God knows these kiddos could use a blessing. And hey, that new Sanders Sides, just oof. That aside:
> 
> Warnings: Guns, blood, injures, mentions of knife, mentions of being burned, fire, getaway driving (is that a warning?), Jones does some Jones ice stuff, and yeah here you go.

 

Roman frantically searched the store for Virgil and Jones the best he could, considering he was tied up in a corner with a few other hostages. He was so worried about them, he hoped they were okay. Why couldn’t he see them? Jones should be able to do something about it, right? Virgil said she had some insane powers. But for some reason, nothing had happened. He didn’t want to admit it but… he was really scared. But he knew he had to stay strong, in case Virgil saw. He knew the little chemically imbalanced romance was probably having a panic attack, and he didn’t want to make it worse if Virgil saw him panicking. So, instead, he did what he was better at.

He acted.

Well, maybe not acted, per se. It certainly wasn’t ‘Romeo and Juliet’ acting. It was more like ‘Annoy the Shit out of Those Guys’ kind of acting. He began blubbering about all sorts of things, a few things pertaining to the actual situation at hand, and a lot of useless facts and such. It was like one of those famous scenes in the movies were the character just starting spilling absolute nonsense that the bad guys didn’t want to hear. Of course, it usually wasn’t the smartest person of the protagonist group, but it was still the most iconic and loved character. Roman’s favorite example was Chunk from The Goonies. Everyone loved Chunk, and of course when the bad guys tried to get information, he didn’t give them anything valuable. (It wasn’t on purpose; he didn’t know what they wanted him to say.) But this case was a little different, because he wasn’t being forced to give information, he was simply annoying them. Creating a distraction for someone else. It was working good for a while, until finally someone snapped, and he was slapped across the face.

Hard.

See, Roman could handle it, but he was caught off guard, and mostly just stunned by it. The guy them walked off, seemingly less angry, but his anger only rose again when something – or maybe someone? – tripped the fire alarm. The noise rang through the building. And sprinklers went off. Roman was both relived and now more fearful. Yes, now the authorities were called, even though it was a different department from what they needed, it will definitely still help. But the problem was was that, as far as Roman’s knowledge went, when police got involved, someone was going at gunpoint. Roman had seen the movies, and he just hoped that they were a bit wrong, he didn’t want to be at gunpoint, and he didn’t want Virgil or Jones to be either. Or an innocent, for that matter. Then a thought occurred to him.

What _exactly_ caused the fire alarm to go off?

And why were the sprinklers going off? Didn’t they only go of when they detected smoke or something? Screaming snapped him out of his thoughts, and he noticed how people around him scooted as far away from him as they could, how his hands were definitely free, and how he could smell smoke behind him. He brought his now free hands to his front, and totally didn’t scream in absolute terror.

His hands were on fire. Oh god his hands were on fire, was he going to die like this? There were things he hadn’t gotten to do yet, like actually act in a real musical! He certainly didn’t want to go out like this! He- wait. Roman noticed how the fire didn’t spread, and didn’t burn. He got up quickly, but still kept his eyes on his hands, that were aglow with fire. It was hard to focus on everything at once. He started to wonder why the robbers didn’t come at him yet. He looked around, and was startled by the scene. Everything was moving way too fast for him to see, and finally he heard a familiar voice shout at him.

“Roman! Look out!” He didn’t have to register what it was before he was tackled to the ground. Roman was scared of burning someone, but he felt his flame go out. When he finally focused enough, he realized it was Virgil who had tackled him, and who was also now on top of him. They laid like that or a second, before Virgil scrambled to his feet, stuttering apologies. Roman thought it was rather cute, but he was still really freaked out at the situation at hand.

“Virge, it’s okay, but, what exactly is happening?” Roman restrained himself from yelling, as to not worry Virgil.

“Well-”

\------

Virgil could feel every bit of it. It was so… weird. It was an indescribable sensation that he honestly didn’t know if he liked or if he should even be feeling at all. But he could feel all the water, every drop. Every molecule of water in the air, every drop pumping through the people’s blood, and all the water flowing through the pipes above and below. He could feel it, the way it moved, the way it change. Then, he felt it shift. He could feel it bend to him, at his will. He realized the water was waiting to be told what to do. Wait, no, that was ridiculous.

He sat in his hiding spot, trying to catch his breathing as the feeling flooded his body. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t like it was waiting for him, but maybe he could control it? Create a distraction of some sort. But how could he control the water that wasn’t there. Sure, he could control the air molecules in a way, but that probably wasn’t enough to do anything, and Virgil feared it could effect the air and it would be harder for people to breath. Then, he felt the water in the pipes change. He thought maybe he could use that, even though it was risky and might not even work, but then he felt where the water was flowing. Water rained down on him as he heard the fire alarm go off.

That was convenient.

Okay, now to try and bend it. That’s easy, right? Virgil tried to focus, but nothing seemed to work. Then, something else changed. He heard Roman scream. Virgil didn’t know _why_ Roman screamed, but it was enough to set Virgil off again. The water from the sprinklers started to bend and form in the air. He heard other shouts, but he continued. He stepped out of his hiding place to get a better view. He saw the robbers staring in disbelief at the water moving in the air. This was his chance. He willed the water at the robbers. There were only two, and Virgil was worried where the third one was, but he couldn’t worry about that now. He pointed at the robbers, and the water shot at them. It hit with a full force, and they were knocked to the ground.

As they were on the ground, he tried to spot a familiar face, and then he saw Roman. Roman was staring at his hands in disbelief, and Virgil saw that they were _on_ _fire_. Oh god, what did he do now? Virgil didn’t have time to think about anything else when he heard a crash. He then saw Jones fighting the last robber – and the other two trying to join in as they got up – with rather large spikes of ice stabbing at the robbers, and the robbers shooting up a storm at her. He saw one ice miss it’s mark, and head _straight_ _in_ _Roman’s_ _direction_. Virgil didn’t know what else to do, so he ran. He cried out at Roman and he tackled him to the ground. He froze up for a moment, hearing the ice shatter upon impact at the wall next to him. _That was way too close._ Then he realized what position he was in, and got up and tried his best to quickly apologies. Roman then asked what was going on, obviously trying to mask his panic.

“Well-”

“Sorry, but he don’t have time for this, we can explain to each other on the way back,” Jones interrupted. He pulled out a knife from her boot – has she just always had that on her? – and walked over to the nearest hostage, a young boy, about fifteen, and cut his bindings free. Then, she handed him the knife. “Help out everyone else, you got that kid?” He nodded quickly and ran off to help untied others. Virgil turned to catch a quick glimpse of three limp robbers on the ground. Virgil helped Roman up as Jones grabbed her duffle bag. Jones shouted at them to get to the car, and ran out of the store, Virgil and Roman in tow.

“Don’t we have to stay and talk to the police?” Virgil jumped into the car, and so did Jones and Roman. Jones tossed her bag in the back next to Roman, and started the car.

“No, they have plenty of witnesses, and they might find out about who we actually are. If they found out who and what we are, we wouldn’t be let go, so we need to get the hell out of Dodge,” she said, slamming on the gas and peeling out of the parking lot.

The car ride back grew an uncomfortable silence as Jones drove about ten miles above the speed limit, which Virgil certainly didn’t think was safe at all. Then again, he also didn’t want to become someone’s lab rat, so he didn’t say anything. But only now did Virgil notice Jones was bleeding.

“Oh my god, you’re bleeding! Did you get shot?!” Virgil broke – more like shattered – the silence as he pointed out the now obvious bullet hole.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just a flesh wound,” Jones grimaced.

“How have you not passed out yet? Are you sure you should be driving? Let one of us drive and the other can help clean your wounds or something,” Roman called from the back.

“No, that would take to long, I can get clean up at home,” Jones said, also referring to the others wounds, like the now caked up blood on the side of her head. “I’m just glad you guys didn’t get hurt.”

“But you could be actually bleeding out right now-”

“No, I’m fine, really, ice powers,” Jones said. “It really helps to numb pain and press at bleeding out wounds, ya’ know, to keep it from bleeding out as much.”

They pulled up to the cabin a while later, and Patton instantly ran out at them.

“OhmygoshguysareyouokayIhadthisfunnyfeelingthatwasn’treallyfunnycauseitwasbadandIfeltlikeitwasconnectedtoyouisthatweirdohheyIfoundsomeunderwearinthecabinwho’sisitbutwaitthatfeeling-” he came out talking a mile a minute. Virgil placed his hands on Patton’s shoulders and reminded him to breath. Patton immediately took a deep breath in, having spoken all that in one breath.

“Wait, you said you felt something, like what?” Jones asked, intrigued.

“It was like a really bad feeling, like someone was in danger,” he said, slightly calmer after Virgil getting him to breath. “Logan said he felt it too. What happened?”

“Um…” Virgil wasn’t sure how to phrase it.

“Wait- did you also happen to feel a slight pain on the side of your face here?” Jones asked, poking at the area Roman was slapped, to which Roman complained.

“Um, yeah, now that I think about it… why?” Patton asked.

“The connection you share-”

“Hey, that’s where I was slapped!” Roman exclaimed wildly. Now that Virgil had thought about it, he felt it too. Only he was too busy trying to calm down. Seeing Roman hurt pissed him off enough to not feel it. Jones sighed.

“Yeah, that makes sense, as I’m sure I told Virgil and may have told you, your souls are linked. You can feel each other’s strong emotions or physical feelings, but kinda dulled down. It’s like being a really good empath, but for three specific people,” Jones stated, then visibly winced. “I’d love to stay and chat, but I do need to clean myself up.”

“Oh my god! I just saw the blood! What happened?!” Patton exclaimed upon noticing the blood.

“We’ll explain inside with Logan,” Virgil said as they walked back to the cabin.

\------

After explaining what happened to Logan and Patton as Jones patched herself up, and Patton hugged everyone, they pulled out the groceries. Patton also insisted to not make much noise, as to not wake the still sleeping Emile on the couch. The amount that was in Jones’s bag was a lot more than physically possible for the size of the bag. (Roman really hoped it was some sort of spell that he could learn so it was way easier to carry his junk around.) At one point, Jones got Roman’s attention and asked him about something in one of the bags. Virgil couldn’t really hear what they were saying, but when he got back, Roman was taking the bag to the back bedroom where he was supposed to sleep that night. When Virgil asked, Roman simply shrugged off the question.

As Virgil went through the things, he was unsurprised to find an assortment of junk food and snacks Roman had picked out. He was, however, surprised to find an assortment of alcohol and ammo, a lot more than he remembered seeing in Jones’s basket, (along with packs of cigarettes, of course). Upon finding them, Jones simply claimed that she had run out and needed to stock up on more. It was weird to think she got it all at some local shop. ~~America, right?~~

They finished putting up the rest of the food and supplies, and that’s when Roman snuck off to his room. Virgil wondered what he could be doing. What came to Virgil’s surprise, though, was when Jones pulled out a small, one-and-a-half-foot tall fake pine tree, with little lights strung through it’s branches.

“What’s that for?” Virgil asked quizzingly.

“Whatdya mean?” Jones asked as she plugged up the little tree, lights turning on, giving off a soft glow. It’s crazy how the electricity still worked at a place like this. “Christmas.”

At that, Virgil froze. Christmas. The feeling of the word was so familiar, yet so foreign. He knew what it was, but had completely forgotten about it due to never _actually_ celebrating it. He had completely forgotten about it. Even if he was okay with never getting to celebrate it, he still felt bad about not getting something for his friends.

“I know it won’t be like an actual Christmas, but I thought this is the least I can do, considering that I’m the one pulling you guys into this mess.”

“Aww, don’t worry about it, kiddo,” Patton reassured, coming down next to Jones. “You’re doing your best, and that’s what matters. Same goes for all of you.”

“Right back at ya, Popstar,” Virgil said, opting to sit between Patton and Jones.

“I agree. Even though we could certainly have done better, it was not in our possible range of action, so trying our best is the best course of action, as which we are doing,” Logan said, sitting next to Patton.

“You said it, Specs,” Roman said suddenly from behind Logan, causing Logan to jump.

“Aww, that’s so sweet,” a quiet voice said from behind them. Jones jumped up in a standing position.

“Emile!” she cried and ran over to where Emile was trying to sit up. “Hey, don’t push yourself.”

“It’s really Christmas already?” Emile asked tiredly.

“Yeah, it is kiddo,” Patton piped up.

“Kiddo? I’m old enough to be your dad.”

“Oh!” Patton giggled.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it, he calls everyone kiddo,” Virgil stated.

Patton giggled again, which, apparently was a contagious giggle because soon everyone was laughing. The air felt lighter. It made Virgil feel a bit better. Soon, they were all curled together, just talking. Over time, they actual opened up a bit. Not much, but enough to end up letting the held back tears of the week pour out. It had been an emotional few days, and now, on Christmas Eve, they were letting it show.

\------

After a while, both Emile and Patton fell asleep. Logan ended up carrying the sleeping Patton to their room. Jones decided to go ahead and go to bed as well. She was going to sleep on the couch, and give Emile the bed, but he was already a sleep and she didn’t want to wake him or move him in the state he was in, so for that night, he was going to stay on the couch. As Jones had her own room, and Logan and Patton shared a room, and Emile had the couch, Roman and Virgil were going to share the last room. Roman and Virgil decided to stay up a bit longer, chatting quietly in the kitchen, mostly because they were both still too wide awake to need to sleep after what had happened.

“What do you mean you’ve never had one before?” Roman whispered-yelled, holding a box of _something_ he claimed was candy in his hand.

“Well, I’ve had those chocolate bars at the store a couple of times-”

“Yeah but these are Queen Anne’s, cherries surrounded in sugary goodness and dipped in chocolate! It’s literally a queen’s candy. It’s the _best_ _Christmas_ candy ever- oh. Man, that sucks,” Roman said as the realization hit. “Well, now you can try it,” Roman said as he took a cherry from the box.

“You’re not gonna try and _feed_ it to me, are you?” Virgil asked suspiciously, eyeing the candy in Roman’s hand.

“No dude. I mean, unless you want to…”

“No.”

“Aww.”

Virgil popped a cherry into his mouth, and chewed. Now, it wasn’t the best, but it was definitely _way_ better than the shit he was feed at Christmas before. He was pretty sure that stuffing was just mixed up leftovers no one ate. He shivered at the thought. Still, that was better than no food at all, right?

“I’ll admit, it’s kinda good,” Virgil said, trying not to smile at Roman’s scoff and dramatic flair.

“So…” Roman pursed his lips. “Do you ever want to like… talk about it?” Virgil froze.

“Talk about what?” he asked, opting to take a seat on the countertop, as he’s done countless times before.

“You know… stuff like… your foster homes, and your…” Roman didn’t need to finish his sentence for Virgil to know what he was talking about.

“Oh.”

“I mean I don’t wanna pry or anything,” Roman was quick to state. “But do you ever _want_ to talk about it?”

Virgil considered this. Did he really _want_ to tell someone? He had tried to tell people before, but no one listened or cared. He was always outcasted and pushed away, even by those who were supposed to be taking care of him. Soon enough, he built walls. If people wouldn’t hear him, then he wouldn’t try to say anything. It was a waste of breath and time. But this time seemed different. Roman was asking him to tell his story. No one had ever _asked_ what _Virgil_ wanted before. These friends really _did_ care about him, didn’t they? Roman was going to _listen_ to Virgil, and Virgil realized that he did want to _tell_ someone. He wanted to scream out all the pain he went through. Now that he was acknowledging it, he felt as if he was going to _burst_ if he didn’t say it now. But he knew he had to take a breath, and take it slow. After the hesitated silence of Virgil’s thinking, he simply nodded his head to answer Roman’s question.

Then, he began to speak.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *drops mic* yeah I did a thing   
> Cas leave.


	12. Hiatus :(

I'm going on a short hiatus. *Chorus of boos insue.* I don't know how long it will be, but I'll try not to make it _too_ long. I just want to give myself some time to catch up on myself, pre-write some chapters and such, and catch up on my work outside of Archive. But when I come back, be ready for some backstories, gay fluff, maybe a bit of singing, angst, and magic training! (By magic training I mean Jones tries her best to teach the boys how to use their powers to the best of her abilities. She's not the most motherly or teacherly type of person.) So, until next time, take it easy guys, gals, and non-binary pals. 

(Note: _Sympathy for the Devil._ Any guesses on what that may mean? Hope it's not that obvious.)

 ~~Peace~~ Cas out ~~Bitches~~! 


	13. House of Memories – Panic! At the Disco

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a short little chapter I didn't want to have to fit this into the next actual chapter, because that's when the magic happens. This is just a short chapter for now that isn't really the best but there is a bit of angst Prinxiety fluff for you. 
> 
> Warning: Mental and physical abuse, stealing.

 

_“Virgil!” Virgil’s father screeched._

_“I’m sorry I’m coming!” a young six-year-old Virgil called as he came._

_“You nasty little shit, get over here!” Virgil’s father yelled as he grabbed the boy by the hair, ignoring the cries of pain. “ **You’re** the one who got this stain on my shirt, aren’t you?” _

_Virgil looked at his father’s shirt. It had a few beer stains of on from a previous night of drinking with ‘friends’._

_“No- no si-sir,” Virgil stammer._

_“Lier!” his father screeched as he let go of Virgil’s hair, throwing him in the process, only to slap him hard across the face, sending him sprawling onto the ground. Then he kicked his son in the stomach for good measure. “Now, clean up this shirt, and while you’re at it, do the rest in the basket!” He yelled, through the shirt on the boy. He stomped over to the dirty clothes hamper and dumped its contents on the boy, and kicked him in the gut once more. He laughed as he stormed off._

_Tears streamed down the boy’s face._

_\------_

_“Virgil dear,” Virgil’s mother called softly._

_“Yes, mama?” Virgil asked quietly._

_“Don’t call me that. I am your mother,” she said, slightly firmer, but still sweet._

_“Sorry, mother.”_

_“Good. Now, will you do your mother a favor?” she asked sweetly._

_“Of course.”_

_“You see that store over there?” she spoke softly, pointing at a small, family-run store. Virgil nodded. “I need you to go in there, and in the back of the store, you’ll see a big glass case full of bottles. I need you to open that case and grab every bottle that looks like this one,” she said as she held an empty bottle of hard liquor in front of her son._

_“Yes mother,” Virgil said._

_“Now, go on then, we don’t have all day.”_

_“But… I don’t have any money.”_

_“Who said you needed money?”_

_“Don’t you need money to get stuff at those places?”_

_“Of course not. Just don’t let anyone see you do it.”_

_“Okay.”_

_\------_

_Virgil’s father punched him in the face._

_“I told you to do the dishes! It’s simple, you idiot! How did you mess that up?!”_

_“I- I can’t reach the si-sink-”_

_“That’s no excuse!” he spit in the boy’s face. “Go do as I say!”_

_\------_

_“Moth-mother?” Virgil called._

_“What?!” she snapped._

_“My- my night-light bro-broke. I’m scared,” he whimpered. He hated the dark._

_“I don’t care. Go to bed before I get your father.”_

_He sniffed. “Sor-sorry.”_

_“Remember, tomorrow you’re going shopping with me!” she laughed._

_Virgil hated shopping trips with his mother. He always felt so quilt afterwards._

_\------_

Virgil choked. He was crying. Why was he crying? He was so weak. His parents were right. He couldn’t even finish a story without breaking. He didn’t even say much. God, he was such a screw-up. He-

He felt warmth envelope him. He realized it was Roman. Roman pulled Virgil into a hug. Virgil sniffled as he tried to control the flow of tears, but he couldn’t. But this felt right. Roman made him feel safe. Virgil never felt like this before, but he liked it. Roman was warm and safe, and even though they hadn’t washed in a while, he still managed to smell nice. Virgil embraced this feeling for as long as it lasted. He felt Roman’s hand move up to run his hand through Virgil’s hair. He tried not to, he still had walls up, but he couldn’t help but lean into the touch. Very rarely had anyone ever run their fingers through his hair, but when it did happen, it felt nice and calming.

“I’m so sorry, Virgil,” Roman whispered. “I had no idea.”

“I’m- I’m sorry I couldn’t say mor-more,” Virgil whimpered. He hated how weak and pathetic he sounded. But he couldn’t help it.

“Sshh, no, it’s okay, I get it…” Roman soothed. Roman kept Virgil in a tight embrace, but loose enough so that Virgil could leave it whenever he wanted as he lead the smaller boy to their bedroom. Roman eventually let go, to Virgil’s disliking, as he was sat on the bed. Virgil looked around the room for a moment, taking in the blandness of it. It wasn’t terrible, it was certainly better than his foster homes, but it was boringly simple. There were no decorations and all there was a desk with a chair, the bed in the middle with a small window and curtain above it, and a small closet to the corner. It made sense, though. It was a survival type of cabin, meant to just have shelter than be comfortable.  

“Hey, um…” Roman broke Virgil’s thoughts. “I kinda got you something for Christmas or whatever… I was gonna wait but I thought you might be able to use it now,” Roman went to the small closet and pulled out the only thing there, and showed it to Virgil. It was a large black hoodie, with purple plaid patches all over, with decorative stitching that was purposely shown, and a small purple and black storm cloud patch that had added stitching to match the patches. It was exactly Virgil’s persona. _That’s_ why Roman had run off earlier, to work on this? The work put into it was obvious, as it was incredible. Virgil was near tears again. But he was tired of crying, tired of emotions.

These past few days had been fucking exhausting.

Virgil smiled tiredly; simple tears fell down his face. He was too tired to sob.  

“Oh jeez, is it that bad? Why are you crying again are you okay?” Roman started speaking again.

“No no, it’s fine. No, it’s great. It’s… I mean- I’m tired, Ro. But the jacket, it’s… Roman, it’s beautiful,” Virgil spoke in a quiet, tired voice. Roman smiled and blushed a little. To Virgil it was hecking cute.

“Do you, um-”

“Wanna try it on?”

Roman nodded shyly. Virgil has almost never seen Roman like this before. Shy and blushing, like a someone talking – or _trying_ to talk – to their crush. Virgil smiled slightly as he slipped on the hoodie and those thoughts bounced in his head. But why was Roman acting like this? Was it really like the comparison, and Virgil was- no. Virgil mentally shook away the blush that blossomed across his face as the thought came to mind. That was dumb, of course Roman didn’t like him _that_ way. Was he even gay? Virgil would hate himself for assuming that.

He placed his thoughts back to the hoodie, as he felt the comfort it brought. He had once read some article for school about how there are different ‘safety blankets’ for people with anxiety and other things. Hoodies were a big one, apparently. Virgil did feel it helping. Virgil then felt the help of the hoodie slip away as he realized he didn’t get Roman anything. He started to panic and babble as he usually does in a situation like this, until Roman cut him off.

“Hey, it’s okay man. It’s cool,” he giggled quietly.

“Thank you,” Virgil whispered in a barely audible voice after a moment of silence that felt like an eternity. After that, Virgil couldn’t contain his yawn, that then spread to Roman.

“Guess that means it’s time for bed,” Roman whispered. Virgil simply nodded and went to curl up in the blanket. Roman and Virgil curled into the bed and promptly fell asleep. They were completely drained from the recent floodgate of emotions being opened, especially Virgil.

In their sleep, they ended up curled together, Roman in protective position of Virgil, as to keep all harm from the dark boy.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was gonna have more of Virgil's home life in this chapter, but I didn't want to write it all out. There will probably be more later in the fic, though. 
> 
> Cas out.


	14. The Other Side of Paradise - Glass Animals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!  
> I bet you thought I died. 
> 
> Sorry I've been way longer than I thought I would. I git distracted with work and other fanfic ideas that I may or may not get to write out. But summer break is here, so maybe that'll make it easier. 
> 
> So the way these chpaters will work, is it'll be part Virgil POV, and part other boy POV, because they'll be practicing their powers or whatever. After that, it will go back to Virgil POV. 
> 
> Warnings: Mentions of gunshots and death, low self-esteem, mentions of abuse, and dreamwalking. With dreamwalking, that shit can be disturbing sometimes. Not really much here, though.

 

 _Virgil opened his eyes and squinted at the bright, blinding sunlight that shone through the window. He shifted slightly, and saw that Roman was already up_ _somewhere because he was no longer in the bed. Virgil sighed as he sat up in the bed, trying to slowly wash away the remnants of sleep left in his brain while taking in his surroundings, which had not changed. Nothing seemed different, but something did feel off. Virgil hated waking up to that feeling. Everything was okay, but it just didn’t feel right. Like everything was too okay._

_He slipped out from under the covers, and let his feet hit the wooden floor. The air just felt thicker. He felt slow. Perhaps that was just the bits of sleep he had yet to rid himself of. He slowly stood up as he stretched, and closed his eyes as he let out an unwanted yawn. He opened his eyes to see a figure standing right in front of him. Virgil yelped with surprise, and fell back onto the bed. He quickly scrambled back up, and given a chance to really look at the figure, he recognized the being._

_“What are you doing here? How’d you get in?” Virgil asked – more like growled – at Deceit._

_“That should not be your concern right now. Though, if you so wish for an answer, be happy to know I’m not truly here. Jones has, unfortunately put up many barriers and protection spells upon this place. We are in your head, Anx.”_

_“What?”_

_“You’re dreaming, dear,” Deceit said smugly._

_“Well then get out of my head,” Virgil snapped._

_“Now now, I promised a private conversation, and a private conversation I will supply,” Deceit spoke smoothly as he stepped closer, causing Virgil to side step away from the bed and then away from Deceit._

_“What do you want?” Virgil snapped again, voice smooth and sharp as a freshly sharpened knife._

_“Just to simply catch up with an old friend, is that to much to ask?”_

_“Well, you did try to kill me and my newer friends, so I don’t know,” Virgil started. “And you could very well lie about everything you say, you freaking call yourself Deceit, man.”_

_“Just because I am Deceit does not mean I have to lie all the time,” Deceit said bitterly. He then glitched. As in literally glitched, like a computer program gone bad. “Now this has taken up far to much time. You’re waking up. I have to go now, but I’ll be back, Anx. Oh, and don’t try to tell anyone what happened, you won’t be able to.”_

\------

 **Name** : True name unknown; goes by ~~Dee~~ Deceit.

 **Being** : The Snake.

 **Powers** : Teleportation, shapeshifting (Preferred form: Snake), dream-walking.

 **Power** **descriptions** :

  * **Teleportation:** Can teleport himself, objects, and other beings at will. To many things teleported at once can drain energy. The more, the harder it is to do, and the more energy is taken.


  * **Shapeshifting:** Can change into almost anything, or change certain aspects of the self. The smaller the change, the easier. Preferred form taken is a snake. Note: Shapeshifting, for this certain being, can affect certain aspects of the self after changing. Example: the ‘s’ in words are dragged out in a hissing stance after changing out of the Snake form.


  * **Dream-Walking:** Can be present in the mind of a sleeping being. Cannot enter the mind of a being who has protected their mind by means of magic. Can plant seeds of deception for personal gain; places lies into victim’s head in order to better control or changes the being’s actions.



\------

Virgil shot up in his bed, breathing heavily. He looked around the room frantically, and saw no one, to his relief. That is, until he remembered Roman was supposed to be in here, too. He was likely already up. Virgil gathered himself and headed out of the room.

Virgil could hear movement from somewhere else in the cabin, so obviously the others were up somewhere. He left the room and headed to the kitchen area, where Logan and Jones were talking, Jones in the middle of making what Virgil assumed was breakfast. Jones’s hair was damp, though. Jones then turned around to see Virgil.

“Mornin’,” she spoke, and caused Logan to turn and see Virgil as well.

“Good morning, Virgil,” he said.

Virgil mumbled a ‘morning’ and headed towards the coffee machine, which he thanked God for. It was way too early to be thinking about that ‘dream’, much less to socialize.

“Hey, Virgil,” Jones said as she poked at some bacon, and got Virgil to slightly turn in her direction. “Ya’ know, Roman should be out of the shower soon, and then the bathroom’s yours.”

Right. Bathroom. Virgil hummed in a tone to let her know he heard her, and took a seat across from Logan at the table. He did need a shower, didn’t he? He hadn’t had the chance in a while, and he thought that most likely the others hadn’t either. Well, most likely Logan and Jones already did, based on Jones’s wet hair, and that fact that Logan was always up before Roman. When they weren’t looking, and sniffed himself near the armpit. Yep, he needed a bath.

“Where’s Patton?” Virgil asked.

“Still in bed. I couldn’t bring myself to force him up,” Logan spoke softly.

After Virgil had finished his coffee, and was done listening to Jones and Logan talk about stuff he was way too tired to hear, he headed towards the bathroom. He assumed Roman was already out, because it had been a while. But you know what you get when you assume; you make an ‘as’ out of ‘su’ and ‘me’. When Virgil opened the door, Roman was still in the bathroom. First thought to enter the mind: Why was the door not locked!? But, luckily **(?)** for Virgil, Roman was already fully dressed, just doing his makeup.

“Oh, sorry, I thought that you, uh, wouldn’t be in here, um…” Virgil felt his face heat up as he looked up at Roman, but there was something different. Roman had _freckles_. In all the time Virgil knew Roman, he never had _freckles._ At first glance, Virgil thought maybe it was just makeup. But no, it wasn’t. He could tell. Those were real freckles, and they were _adorable_. Roman blushed a little and nodded.

“Yeah, no, it’s a, it’s okay-”

“I didn’t know you had freckles,” Virgil blurted out, surprised at his own words.

“I, uh, I usually cover them, it makes me look stupid....” Roman’s gaze dropped.

“What? No, no. They’re…” Virgil hoped his blush wasn’t visible. “They’re cute.”

“Really?” Roman looked up. “You really think that?”

“Yeah.”

Roman smiled, and went ahead and put the rest of the makeup up. He didn’t need to use the rest anyway. Roman packed up the few things in the bathroom, and just before he left, he stopped.

“Hey, Virge, I got all of us some makeup, since I know you guys wear stuff too, and I uh… I hope the stuff I got is okay. It’s in the drawers,” Roman said before walking out. Virgil went to the drawers and saw the exact kind of makeup he would want to wear if he could ever get ahold of it. He smiled.

\------

** Patton’s POV **

 

Patton squirmed around in the bed he was in. He wanted to soak up the time in his bed before his dad came in and yelled at him to get up. He pulled the blanket over his head and wished he could go back to sleep. The sun filtering in the room was far too bright. He sighed in defeat as he decided he might as well get up. Weird that his dad hadn’t come in yet. Maybe he was hungover still? He pulled the blankets off and rubbed sleep from his eyes, and looked around the room. Wait… this wasn’t his bedroom. He racked his memory until he realized where exactly he was. He wasn’t supposed to be at home, he remembered, and he was in that cabin place.

He got out of bed and walked down the hall to see Roman and Logan at the table enjoying breakfast. He smiled. They were really cute. But wait… did Roman have freckles? Patton didn’t remember freckles. Logan was already ready for the day, hair slicked back and nose in a book he had likely gotten from Jones. He was such a cute nerd like that. Logan looked up first and saw Patton coming down that hall.

“Good morning Patton. Did you sleep well?” Logan greeted.

“Morning Pat.”

“Yeah, and good morning,” Patton smiled. “Hey, Roman, um-”

“Is it the freckles?”

“Um… yeah. It’s really cute, Ro,” Patton said. He saw Roman blush a bit.

“Th-thanks.”

“Hey, Pat’s up,” Patton heard a familiar gravelly voice say from behind him. He beamed at Virgil as the boy clad in black dried his hair with a small towel.

“Morning Virge,” Patton said. Virgil smiled back.

“Bathroom’s free for the time being,” Virgil said to Patton as he came over to the table.

“Oh, thanks kiddo!” Patton smiled. He realized that he likely did need a shower.

After eating a bit, he went to the bathroom and started a shower. Once he got to the bathroom, he let his ever-lasting façade fall, and he frowned at himself in the mirror. It’s not that Patton wasn’t a happy person, but right now he was just _tired_. He was always tired. He never told anyone else about it, not even Virgil or Roman or Logan. (Well, those were the only people he could tell, but that was beside the point.) They often asked if he was okay, because he always worried about them over himself, but he always waved away their worries. It didn’t feel nice to lie, but lying is sometimes a necessity to protect those you love.

If a known serial killer came to your house and asked the address of your dearest and closet friend, would you tell?

This situation may not be as dramatic as the example, but Patton didn’t want the others to worry about him. What happened to him at home and at school didn’t matter unless it affected them too.

He got into the shower and let the warm water run over himself. He looked down and saw the water below him slightly brown, which was unsettling because when was the last time he had the opportunity to be in dirt? He tried to ignore that thought as he felt throbbing in left arm. He rubbed the bruise on his arm, and tried to will the pain of it away. It was a rather recent bruise, but it at least wasn’t the worst thing he could have gotten.

He rubbed the strawberry cream shampoo into his hair until it was full of thuds. Patton personally thought that the shampoo was a bit to strong smelling and reminded him of a type of cough drop. After rinsing himself, he turned the water to nearly ice-cold temperature. The warm water often drained Patton and left him tired and ready for bed, so having the shower on cold at the end would help him wake up.

He got out and dried off. He looked at himself in the mirror, slightly pleased that he looked a bit more presentable, but still tired. He slid on some new clothes, relishing in the cleanliness of it. He walked out of the room and down the hall to see everyone chilling in the living area. Emile lay on the couch, tired and drained but still in a peppy attitude, while Logan sat with good posture – probably the only on there who has good posture, other than a preforming Roman – and Virgil and Roman chatting crossed-legged on the floor. Though, Jones was no where in sight.

“Hey, where’s Jones?” Patton asked.

“Oh, she went outside to, um… well, be Jones,” Emile smiled with a small chuckle at the end.

“I think she may wanna talk to you though, Pat,” Virgil added.

“Really? Okay,” Patton said. He walked out the front door, and wondered what Virgil meant by that. When he walked out, he looked around, but he couldn’t see anyone. He keep walking a bit, before he heard a voice shout behind him.

“Hey wait stop!”

Patton stopped and turned around, in time to see Jones jump from the roof and land gracefully – holy shit how’d she do that? – on the forest floor.

“I set up some wires and I don’t want you setting them off and giving someone a heart attack,” Jones spoke as she approached Patton.

“Wires?”

“Yeah, here,” She walked up to a tree and squatted down near it’s roots. She pointed at a mouse trap nailed into the tree connected with a wire. “Trip it, it goes off, makes a gunshot noise, blah blah blah. Like in Stranger Things.”

“Oh, okay. Well, um… why the heck were you on the roof?” Patton asked.

“I just chill up there. Anyway, I know we need to get you guys started on practicing your magic,” Jones said as she got up and looked at Patton. “But I only have enough energy to do one dude at a time. I thought it may be better to start with you.” Patton’s eyes light up with excitement and widened with fear at the same time.

“Really?” Patton asked.

“Yeah,” Jones chuckled. “Whenever you’re ready today.”

“Oh, well, I’m ready as I’ll ever be,” Patton smiled.

“Good,” Jones said, gabbed his hand, and began leading him away from the cabin. They were sure to not trigger the only alarm system everyone could hear.

After walking for while they came to a clearing in the woods.

“Why are we so far out?” Patton asked.

“Because if something went wrong, like you miss fired, we don’t want it hitting the cabin, our shelter, or drawing attention to where we sleep.”

“Oh.”

“Okay, so…” Jones dragged out her statement. “I don’t actually know how we should properly start it.”

“Should we just jump right in?” Patton asked.

“Why not,” Jones said. “So, what we should do is likely elemental bending firstly, considering that is your main power and was constant throughout the centuries, so it’ll be easier to work with, though it is the more powerful side. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Patton nodded in response. To be completely honest, he was extremely nervous. He had no idea what he was doing, and from the looks of it, neither did Jones. He understood that, because it’s not like she had ever done this before, she simply saw it happen. But it wasn’t all that great having a trainer who didn’t know what they were doing.

“Patton, are you ready?” She asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Yes,” Patton said quietly.

“Okay. So Patton, I need you to focus. Think about how you feel around your friends, the people whom you share your soul with. Think hard about how you feel about them. Focus on that emotion. You got it?”

Patton nodded.

“Okay Patton, close your eyes, and keep your mind on the feeling. Do you feel anything? Anything at all,” Jones spoke quietly.

Patton focused like she said. He thought about all the good times he had with his friends, all the times they all cared about each other, including himself. How close they were to each other. Then, he felt something. A tug in his chest. He felt a gentle breeze around him, and the tug followed that breeze. He decided that must be it, and focused on the feeling. He felt the gentle breeze turn stronger, and far more powerful. It turned to strong wind.

“I believe you’re doing it, Patton. Keep going,” Jones spoke.

Patton opened his eyes to see the wind swirl around him in a sentient sort of way, as if it was a group of puppies around himself begging for him to throw the ball one more time. But the brilliant thing about it was that the wind seemed to be a multitude of colors. Shades of purple blended into blues, and reds into yellows. It was a beautiful sight indeed.

“Can… can you see that too?” Patton asked Jones, though his eyes never left the sight before him.

“Yes,” Jones replied, eyes glued to the sky in awe.

With sudden realization, Patton knew this was him. This was his power poring out from his soul, and spilling into the open air. He remembered that he was supposed to be able to control it. He thought long and hard, trying to figure out what he should do and how he could do it. He had the wind at his control, but he had to give orders, and he had to be able to give orders in general, after all.

Then, a thought can to mind. He remembered long road trips with his mother before she passed. They would often carry a conversation, but when the car fell into a comfortable silence, or they decided to turn on the radio instead, the young boy would gaze out the window and just imagine. His favorite thing to imagine was when he had his head rested against the window as they drove, so when they passed by the trees of the old enchanting forest, it appeared that the trees would bow to him as he passed. He felt like he was a royal, that he was king of the forest, and the trees would bow to his majesty as he passed their presence. He never actually knew for sure if the trees bowed or not, because to him at such a young age, it seemed so real, and so right. But, it was a great feeling, whether or not it was imagined.

But then he realized: perhaps it could be a reality? Maybe not in the stance he imagined it on those long childhood road trips, but it could be close to it.

He focused not on being the center of attention, or being bowed to because he was greater than others, but simply his childhood state of mind. He focused on the amazing feeling he felt just because he was _loved_ then. He focused on the way the trees moved in his mind as if they loved him like family. Upon opening his eyes, the scene bewildered him.

It _worked_.

It actually _worked_.

As he stood in the clearing, he looked around at all the trees that circled him and Jones. The trees bent in a bowing position, their bows facing that which lay in the center of the clearing, which was Patton himself. Colorful wind rushed around, both to bend and sway the trees towards the clearing, and to circle Patton. It felt like the wind itself was alive, and very excited.

At first thought, one would never assume wind to be a very sentient thing. And at first glance at the situation, one would simply assume strong winds were about. But upon closer inspection, one would see just how alive the wind truly was. And, since it had been many years since an elemental bender of Air came about, being bent once more was quite an exciting event for the wind.

The multitude of colors swirled around Patton with joy. Patton was overwhelmed by the emotion it brought up. This moment was likely one of the greatest moments in his life. The scene that circled them was incredible.

“Amazing,” he heard Jones whisper near him, causing him to jump slightly. In the rush of adrenaline, he had forgotten she was there.

“Yeah, it is,” Patton said, reluctantly peeling his eyes away from the scene to face Jones. “Does that mean I did it right?”

“Patton, this is _incredible_ ,” Jones spoke. “I’ve never seen or heard of an elemental bender of the Main Four being this _powerful_.”

“Really?” Patton asked in awe.

“Truly,” Jones said. “Are you, by chance, ready to see what _else_ you can do?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI at the end there she's referring to Patton's Spirit Animal thing. What do you think Patton's spirit animal is? I would really like to hear your guesses in the comments. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and have a nice day!
> 
> Cas out.


	15. Better Days – The Dirges

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait my dudes. Here you go, fresh from the keyboard.

 

Virgil watched as Patton walked out the door to meet Jones.

“So… what’re they doing again, exactly?” Virgil asked out loud, not really to anybody in particular, but the question would mostly be pointed towards Emile.

“All four of you have to practice your abilities, and Jones is the only one to help. Problem is, she can only handle one of you at a time. It’s really draining on the poor girl. She decided to ask Patton to practice first,” Emile responded. The answer seemed well and good, but Virgil had just one problem.

“Well, what are we supposed to do? Surely you don’t expect us to sit around and wait,” Virgil said.

“I get it, Virgil,” Emile did his best to sit up right, injures barely healing and all. “Jones… well, she’s been through a lot. She is very powerful and smart, but things pile up and take tolls on her. She just needs to take her time with this. You all do, really.”

“Emile has a point,” Logan spoke up, setting his book aside. “We cannot rush into these sorts of things without consequences. This will take time. Although, we need to be able to do _something_ if Jones can only help us practice one at a time. What if something were to happen, and we didn’t know the proper response in time?”

“I concur,” Roman said. “We can’t just sit around and wait for an attack, completely unprepared.”

“Did you just say ‘concur’?” Virgil asked.

“This place has been enchanted for a while, and add that to what Jones can do, Deceit won’t be able to get in.” Emile said. “We’ll be fine.”

Virgil thought back to the ‘dream’ he had the night before. Sure, Deceit wasn’t _physically_ there, but he had somehow managed to get into his head, which was rather a scary thought. If Deceit could do this often, Virgil might not ever feel safe to sleep. Virgil also didn’t know if Deceit could just access his dreams, or the entirety of his thoughts and mind. If the latter were the case, then that would be far too scary. Deceit could find out _way_ too many things he shouldn’t know. And even if it was just dreams, Deceit could still very well intrude on thought, because dreams can often be created based on one’s thoughts and memories.

But then… could Deceit get into the minds of anyone else? Or has he already? Could he haunt the dreams of Patton, or go through Logan’s memories, or Roman’s thoughts? Could he get into Jones’ mind, or Emile’s? Could he find the crack or hole in the security through Jones’ memories, and rip it from her and steal his way in?

Deceit _did_ manage to remove all four of them from the minds of everyone who ever knew them in that town. Does that mean he can just enter someone’s head and do what he wants?

These thoughts swirled through Virgil’s mind. It made him internally panic. He was doing his best to hide it, but the thought of any of this was totally freaking him out.

“Virgil?” Roman spoke quietly, snapping Virgil out of his thoughts. “Are you alright?”

_No, not really._

“Yeah, I’m alright,” Virgil said. But he didn’t. That wasn’t him talking. It was, but it wasn’t. He didn’t want to say that.

_No, Roman, that’s not what I was going to say! Deceit got into my head last night. Is this what this is?_

“Are you sure?” Roman asked, concern lacing his voice.

_Roman!_

“It’s just… this is all insane, and it’s getting to me,” Virgil said out loud. Emile gave him a skeptical look, but said nothing.

“Alright,” Roman sighed.

Virgil looked okay, but on the inside he was totally freaking out. Was Deceit taking over his body? How is that even possible? Virgil tried to use his voice again.

“I, uh, gotta use the bathroom,” Virgil excused himself, and quickly made his way to the back of the cabin. He closed and locked the door, and exhaled loudly. He tried to get his breathing back. Okay, so he could still use his voice, and he could still use his voice, that calmed him down a bit. But what the hell was that?

Okay, so it happened when he tried to talk about his ‘dream’ last night. Could that just be it? He couldn’t talk about Deceit being in his head, right? That did seem logical, considering Deceit would likely not want anyone else to know. That might also help eliminate the theory he is getting into everyone else’s head. Although, he might just want them not to know they are all having the same issue. He decided to test this. Well, test what he could.

_Deceit was in my head last night._

“I’m alright, really.”

_Dogs are pretty cool._

“Dogs are pretty cool.”

_I think Deceit is monitoring what I say._

“No, nothing’s wrong. I’m just a bit shaken up.”

_Deceit is an asshole._

“Deceit is an asshole.”

So, it was just anything that might give Deceit away. That of course, was far to frightening to comprehend, but at least Virgil can understand what exactly is going on. He tried to control his breathing, but it was getting rather hard.

_In for four, hold for seven, out for eight._

_Four, seven, eight._

After a couple of minutes, he felt okay enough to come back out. Roman was the first to meet him halfway down the hall.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked with concern lacing his voice.

“I’m fine, I just had to use the bathroom Princey,” Virgil reassured. He knew he wasn’t okay, but like hell he was telling Roman that. Besides, he couldn’t exactly explain the problem, could he?

“You just… seemed a bit on edge,” Roman said.

“I’m always on edge, I’m and anxious mess,” Virgil laughed. “I just get good at hiding it for the most part.”

Roman looked like he didn’t quite believe Virgil, but he didn’t push it. Roman knew better than to push Virgil. He may have not known Virgil that long, but he knew that pushing could only make it worse. Virgil would just get far more anxious and Roman may hurt him in the process. He didn’t want to risk that. They walked back to the common area.

“So, what are we doing while we wait?” Virgil asked. Emile smiled.

“Well, I know you guys want to help, but I’ve got no idea what to do with that. So, until then, maybe we could play some board games and watch cartoons? They’ll only be gone for a few hours,” he said.

Logan, Roman, and Virgil all swapped looks. It was like a new language that only they knew. Then, they looked back at Emile.

“I think that’ll do, Emile,” Logan smiled softly. “Or, as they say, ‘tight’.”

Roman and Virgil couldn’t suppress their giggles, to which Emile and Logan joined.

Virgil – and the others – may be in a messed-up place right now, but that doesn’t mean they can’t _try_ to be okay. Right?

**\------**

“By Edgar’s raven you bloody did it,” Jones said in awe.

She got an excited howl in response.

Patton was a freaking _dog_. He had taken the form of a very fluffy husky, tail curled up like a shrimp in the air. You could quite literally see the smile on the dog’s face.

Great opening, right?

“Well, now I feel great about myself, I actually was able to help you do that! Ha!” Jones laughed. She floated above the ground in a natural state, like she does it all the time. She laughed as Patton wagged his tail.

Patton looked up from where he was on the forest floor, now obviously far shorter than Jones. This felt _awesome_. It was rather strange, but it was pretty cool too.

It was a similar transition to trying to manipulate air. He had to focus on an inner core, and it started to happen, Then, he simply had to learn how to channel it, to control it. It seemed to be working well so far. Nothing had gone wrong.

“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” Patton spoke up.

“What?” Jones’ face con _tord_ ed in confusion. (Who got the reference? Just the poor author? Okay…)

“Sorry, I was just testing to see if I could talk in people or not,” Patton said.

“Oh- okay,” Jones said. Then her expression changed, and she somehow pulled a book out of her hoodie pocket.

The book was familiar to Patton, but he couldn’t pinpoint where the familiarity came from. Jones flipped through the pages, until she apparently found what she was looking for.

“The Dog – Loyalty; noble; a true and loyal friend,” she read from the book. “It doesn’t specify what kind of dog, so I’m, like, 95% sure this is it. But that’s close enough,” she continued, closing the book and putting it back.

“Well, now what do we do?” Patton asked as he sat on the forest floor. Jones looked up at the sky. It was nearing the evening; they had already missed lunch. Jones had told Emile what she was doing, as to not worry the others.

“Well, we should start to head back, it’s getting rather late. You already missed lunch,” Jones said. Patton has having too much fun to realize how fast time flew past. He heard his stomach rumble.

“I am hungry,” Patton said.

“Okay, well, you’ll have to change back to a human,” Jones said.

“Why?” Patton pouted.

“It’ll be a lot easier, on all of us for now. You can change back later if you want,” She said, ignoring the slight disappointed puppy look she earned from Patton as he willed back his human form.

“Do you need help?” Jones asked.

“Nah, I got this, just- got it!” Patton said, and in a poof of smoke, he was back to his human self.

Well, mostly.

“Oh Hamlet,” Jones sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“What is it?” Patton asked innocently.

“Um… I think Emile will know more about this than me,” Jones said.

“What? Know more about what?” Patton asked.

“Look for yourself,” Jones said, gesturing to Patton.

Patton looked at himself, he couldn’t find anything off. He felt something on his lower back, so he reached around and- wait wait what. He felt his dog tail, lowered now, but still as fluffy as it was beforehand.

“What-”

“Try your head too,” Jones said. Patton touched the top of his head, and found his actual ears replaced with his dog ears. He looked up at Jones, who handed him a reflective shard of ice to look at. He certainly did have dog ears.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it, Patton, we can deal with it when we get back,” Jones said, taking the ice back and letting it melt away into the air. Patton stared at it as it went. “You’re still _technically_ in human form, other than ears and a tail.”

“Okay,” Patton said, suppressing a smile.

“Alright, let’s go,” Jones said, and they were off.

**\------**

N **ame:** Patton Merritt. 

 **Being:** The Dog – Loyalty; noble; a true and loyal friend.

 **Powers:** Spirit animal shape-shift [controlled], Air bending.

 **Power** **descriptions** :

  * **Spirit Animal Shape-Shift [Controlled]:** Can only shape-shift into spirit animal, or ‘being’, The Dog. ‘Controlled’ meaning the shape-shifting process does not have to be completed. Other form than entirely dog is simply a dog tail and dog ears. Can choose to have just one.



  * **Air Bending:** Can control, and in some cases create air and wind.



**\------**

When they got back to the cabin, Logan was out on the porch, reading, as per usual. At least, it looked like that from a distance. He had a book out in his lap, but he was looking out into the woods. The adorable nerd was studying his new territory.

Patton and Jones could see him before he could see them. Patton looked at Logan, and like a perfect shot in a movie, the sunlight shone on his face just right. His pale skin in contrast to his plain black shirt. He gently pushed up his glasses as he stared off into the trees. It was a perfect imagine. Patton did his best to commit this picture to memory, because even if he did have a camera, it wouldn’t capture the beauty of Lo- the scene.

Patton tried to hide his blush as he and Jones came out of the forest. Logan turned to greet them, and likely reprimand them for being gone so long and missing a meal, but when he actually saw them, his mouth went agape as he stared directly at Patton.

“Hey, Lo,” Patton said.

“Patton, what is, um…” Logan didn’t quite know how to say it.

“There was a thing that happened after he shifted. I’m gonna ask Emile about it,” Jones said.

“Shifted? You mean he managed to shape shift?” Logan asked.

“Yeah, it was so cool!” Patton said excitedly, his tail wagging behind him. Honestly, it was rather adorable. “I turned into a dog! Isn’t that awesome!?”

“Yeah, it is,” Logan smiled. He got up to head inside, following Jones. Patton followed along. “What all did you get to do?”

“Well, I-”

“Holy shit Pat,” they turned to the voice, who was none other than Virgil.

“Language,” Patton scolded.

Roman and Emile had looked up upon their return, too.

“Oh, so that happened, huh?” Emile said.

“Yeah, so what exactly is it?” Jones asked.

“He already shapeshifted into… I’m guessing some kind of dog, right?” Emile said, analyzing Patton. Patton nodded his head, and Jones responded with a hum. “Then this is likely the after affect of shifting. Like when Deceit shape-shifts, his voice is affected by whatever his previous form was.”

“Yeah, I was wondering why his ‘s’s weren’t drawn out last time,” Virgil spoke up.

“Right, but it fades away after a certain period of time. This is a similar case. Although, to my knowledge, you should be able to take this form when you please as well. It’s a half-way shift, so you can change into this whenever you like, but as an after affect you’ll just have to wait for it to go away.”

“Cool,” Jones said. “Welp, I’m retiring for the night.” With that, she walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a random bag of chips, a few beers, and a pack of cigarettes and headed out the door.

“Jones, dear, you know that’s not healthy in the slightest,” Emile spoke up to get her attention. “You haven’t even eaten anything since breakfast.” Jones turned around and shook the bag of chips with a smile.

“That’s what the chips are for,” she said, and walked out the door. Emile sighed.

“Were is Elsa going?” Roman asked, finally getting to speak.

“Probably to the roof. She needs her… ‘alone time’,” Emile said.

“Well, I’m hungry,” Patton said.

“Go eat whatever you want, as long as it’s an actual meal,” Emile smiled.

They all ended up fixing different types of sandwiches and chips. They ate and talked for a while, just being around each other. Patton talking about his experience with Jones earlier on in the day. Virgil bragging about beating Roman in _Are You Smarter Than a Fifth_ _Grader_ in every round. Although, it was actually Logan who won the entire game. Logan came first, then Virgil, then Emile, then Roman.

After a while – which was a few hours, and Jones had yet to return – everyone went to their rooms for the night. Emile, of course, stayed on the couch because he wasn’t about to take the bed option from Jones. He was far too nice for that.

Patton sat curled up on the bed, and Logan next to him, but legs crossed as he stared off into space.

“Lo?” Patton spoke quietly. Logan responded with a hum, to let him now he heard him. “What are you thinking about?”

“Just… all of this. Just a week ago, if you told me that I had powers and dark forces were hunting me down, I’d say you’re insane. But now…” he sighed. “I’m not sure what to do.”

“You know,” Patton started. “Before this school year started, if you told me that I’d end up with three best friends, who are caring, and kind, and fun, and smart, I’d tell you that’s impossible.” Logan turned to face Patton.

“What do you mean? I’m sure everyone would want to be your friend. You’re so sweet and caring, and always bubbly and happy. I don’t see how people could say no to you,” Logan said, causing Patton to blush a bit.

“I know that since you moved here just a bit before the school year started, kinda like Virgil, so you probably don’t know. I’ve been in that town for years. Since fifth grade,” Patton started. “And it was just me and my dad. My dad… no one likes him. He always rips people off and gets their money. He’s always rude to people, and hates everyone. He always manages to get away with it, too. So, nobody likes him. He is kind of the town drunk, too, now that I think about it. I dunno if that’s still a thing though,” Patton smiled sadly. “And I guess since everyone knew me because of my dad, no one wanted to talk to me. They think I’d either be just like him, or that because I’m associated with him, I deserve some of his punishment, I guess.”

Logan frowned deeply. His eyes turned almost icy, and Patton was little frightened.

“Patton, that is absolutely ridiculous. Those people judge you just because of who your father is are clearly in the wrong. Your father may not be the kindest man, but that doesn’t give anyone the right to pick on you for it. You’ve done nothing to deserve that. You are not your father, and if anyone should know that, it’s me. I know from personal experience that you do not have to be like your parents. For those people who judged you because of the things your father did, well, they are missing out on a lot of amazing things, because they passed up the chance to be friends with you,” Logan finished his rant.

That’s when Patton realized how much his friends really care about each other, and about him. That they, that Logan, really truly care about him, and don’t think of him like the rest. This isn’t just pity, it’s real. He felt tears spring in his eyes.

“Patton?” Logan asked concerned, anger in his face melting away into something soft. “Are you okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry. Patto-” Logan was cut off my Patton launching a hug on him. “Patton, are you alright?”

“I’m okay, I’m better than okay. Thanks, Lo,” Patton said. He could feel his tears of slip from his eyes. He could also feel Logan slowly wrap his arms around Patton, until Patton was safe and secure in Logan’s arms.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “A writer is a world trapped in a person.”  
> -Victoria Hugo 
> 
> Well, now I know what's wrong with me.
> 
> Cas out.


	16. Twisted – Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sneak peek at Deceit's life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Kidnapping, death mentions.
> 
> A chapter that derives away from our current area to talk about Deceit. A bit shorter than I'd prefer, but content is content, so....  
> And boy oh boy that new video was just a rollercoaster of weird to feels from start to finish, huh? And the end when Remus said he had a snake in his butt was that weird funny thing you'd expect from him until you realize...

 

Deceit sluggishly blinked his eyes open. He poked his head up ever so slightly to check his surroundings. A habit he made and was never able to break. When all was clear, as it usually was, he uncoiled and slithered out of his sleeping place. Once he was out, he shifted back into his more human form. It wasn’t all human, considering the snake-like features that spread across his face. He even had a forked tongue, which he rather liked.

He often slept in his snake form for multiple reasons. It was more comfortable, in his opinion, though he got cold easier. But that’s what his little hole was for. It also helped him hide in case someone found the old abandoned warehouse he called home. Another thing is that he didn’t have to change into pajamas when he slept in snake form, because snakes don’t need clothes. So he could just change and quickly slither in the hole.

Of course, that meant after he woke up, if he spoke he slurred his ‘s’s. But, it’s not like he had anybody to talk to other than himself, so it really didn’t matter.

He decided that he was going to take it easy today. It was always draining after dream walking. He wished he could have said more to Virgil, but he can always try next time. He can’t do it the following night, because that is just too much. The father away the person is when he enters their head, the more draining it is. With how tired Deceit felt, Virgil may as well have been on the other side of the country. Hell, for all Deceit knew, Virgil _was_ on the other side of the country.

_Virgil_. The name was foreign yet familiar as it slide off his tongue and rattled in his skull. In the time he knew Virgil, he had known him as Anx. In the time Virgil knew Deceit, he had known him as Dee. They had come to the mutual agreement to never know each other’s real name during their time in the homes. Anx was short for Anxiety, as Virgil had told him a bit before he left the foster home they shared. He admitted to being very anxious and having anxiety issues, so it sadly worked well as a nickname. Deceit admitted that Dee was short for Deceit, because he lied quite a bit.

He often lied to people all around him for many reasons. He lied just out of habit from having to lie for other people. In the end, it was a hard habit to break. A habit he never actually broke. He’d lie about the simplest of things. He’d like to everyone. Except for Virgil. No, not Virgil. Anx. He’d never lie to Anx. The only time he did was whenever it was his joke lying, where he’d drag out the key word to let Anx know it was the opposite of what he was actually saying. It became something of a code between the two in the foster home.

But the nickname Dee stayed with Deceit forever. He never told anyone his real name, not even Anx. In fact, not even the foster system or school system knew his real name. It was lost to the world when he fell into the clutches of society. And he planned to keep it that way. Anyone who ever knew him only ever knew him as Dee. No one knows his real name. At least, no one alive anyway.

Anx and Jones were probably the only people he’d ever known as anything near a friend. Anx… Anx was kind. He had an act put up, walls guarding him from others. He used it to scare off people. It worked for the most part. The only time he ever let his guard down was around Dee. They took care of each other. They stuck together like glue.

But times change. Anx was forcibly moved away from the foster home, and Dee never saw him again until the day came for his job to be completed for the darkness, and he realized Anx was Virgil, one of the four kids Deceit was supposed to corrupt or kill.

After Anx left the home, Dee was in the system for a few more years. He moved from house to house too. He was never able to make friends, not really. The few times he’d tried to have a relationship of any kind with anyone, it ended horribly. Either mental, physically, or emotional pain. Usual more than one.

He was closed off from everyone.

When it was about freshman year when something happened. It started with just being in the dreams of his roommates in his current foster home. It was weird, but he would hear them talk about the exact dreams he had the night before, and even mention seeing him. Of course, they wouldn’t tell him that. He would just over-hear it.

Once he hide in his room after school, like he did every day. He curled up in the corner o his bed in the corner of the room. He thought about being able to curl in on himself more, and suddenly, he was far smaller than he was supposed to be. The most concerning thing was how his sight changed. Everything felt different. He squirmed, and instead slithered out. He looked at himself, and from what he could tell he… he was a snake. It took it good while to calm down from the initial panic and even longer to figure out how to shift back. He was glad no one else was in the room at the time.

His voice was messed up for a bit after that, which he later found was going to be the room after shifting. But it’s not like he’d need his voice much back then. He had no one to talk to.

He wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do about this. At first, with the dreams, he’d thought they’d just been coincidences. They had been suspicious, but he wrote it off. He really just didn’t want to think about it. But, after the snake thing, it got rather hard to overlook.   

Then, something happened that changed all of it.

Deceit can remember what happened with almost exact clarity.

**\------**

_Dee was walking home after school. He rubbed his shoulder, where a bruise was forming after yet another school fight. Funny, no one ever seems to care to stop it. If anyone bothers to notice it happening, they cheer it on and nothing more. Never once had Dee seen a teacher come out and try to stop a fight._

_As he walked down the streets, and was very aware of the dark and cliché alleyways as he passed them. The idea of being jumped from an alleyway was rather ridiculous, but not so untrue. And, as the thought crossed his mind, a pair of arms came from the dark and grabbed him. Of course._

_One hand went to his mouth, and the other wrapped around his arms and torso, so he was immobile. He struggled and fought against the person restraining him. He strained his muscles, but all to fail. The person holding him was a lot stronger than him, and he was pulled farther down the alleyway._

_“Is it him?” he heard a voice ask._

_“Yeah, I’m sure of it. I saw him shift in his room a few days ago,” the person holding him said._

_Dee still tried to wriggle out of the person’s grip, but to no avail. Then, he thought about trying to do what he had done before. He tried that to, but he had no idea how it worked, so nothing happened. He felt then try to pull him away somewhere else, and he wasn’t having it. He strained and struggled._

_“You know, maybe we should-” the other person was cut off quite quickly with a flash of blue. There was a blue light emitting from something, but before Dee could figure out what it was, it was gone. Suddenly, Dee was slammed into the ground, being thrown harshly be the person holding him._

_“Who’s there? Show yourself!” the person previously holding him yelled. Another flash of blue, and then it was quiet._

_Dee froze in his place on the ground. What the hell was happening?_

_“Are you alright?” a voice asked. He looked around, but couldn’t see anything._

_“Who- who’s there?” he asked, mentally punching himself for the slightest stutter._

_“I’m here to help. We need to get out of here, alright?” she asked, her voice getting slightly soft and gentle. Dee looked around, wishing he could see. She said she was here to help, maybe he could trust her? Enough to at least get him out of her._

_“O- okay,” he said, and nodded mostly to himself. He was someone lead out of the alleyway, relieved to be away from it. Once out, under a streetlamp he saw his rescuer. A girl, barely beyond her high school years, stood in front of him. Her black hair was cut short, shaved at the sides and spiked up a bit. She wore a baggy t-shirt that showed one of her shoulders from the collar, and a band logo,_ Louden Swain _. Her torn jeans covered up most of her boots, with the exception of the toes. She held out her hand._

_“Jones,” she said. Dee waited a moment before taking her hand._

_“Dee,” he said quietly._

_“So, you might be wondering what in Chuck’s name is going on,” she laughed slightly. “Well, in case you haven’t noticed, you’re not all…” she waved her hands to gesture at him. “Human.” Dee simply stared. “I don’t know what all your powers are, but I can tell just be looking at you, you’re an Inhuman.”_

_“Inhuman?” Dee questioned quietly out loud, mostly to himself. “So, either the weird shit that’s been happening is going to start making sense, or I’m more insane than I thought.”_

_“I’m pretty sure it’s the first one, unless you’ve gone on a leisurely murder spree, or just decided to bomb the school because the popular kids are assholes,” Jones said. Dee stared at her wide-eyed. Jones made a pop sound with her mouth before continuing. “Right, might not be the best time to make jokes like that.”_

**\------**

Deceit remembered this as he worked. Her focused on the feelings it gave, the terrible feelings and thoughts it provoked as he used it to harness more power. He was going to need to be a lot more powerful if he was going to do what he needed to.

He sat on the floor of the warehouse; legs crossed. The room lit up slightly yellow as he focused on his powers. He wasn’t really doing anything; he was gaining power in a stance. This was a holy ground of magic before it became an abandoned warehouse. That magic still runs through the land, like blood through the veins of the body. It’s pure magic, not of light, not of dark, it just is. It’s the most one of the most powerful kinds of magic. He focused to pull that magic from the ground and into himself. He couldn’t get it out all at once, but when he didn’t it was like pulling it out piece by piece. He always felt more. powerful and alive after doing it, though the process was saddening. The things he had to focus on twisted his heart, but he made it through each time.

Deceit sighed as he remember it all, thought deeper on the memory. That’s how he had met Jones. She changed a lot since then, and so had he. And he may not have seen it, but back then, that was the easy time. Things were simpler back then. It was rather fun, just trying to understand his abilities alongside Jones. He often wished during that time he could see Anx again. Anx was his only friend ever before Jones, and if he had both of them at once, it would have felt like a complete family. He may not have known Anx that long, but he could tell he was different, in a way that made him amazing.

He just didn’t know how right he actually was.

The thoughts and memories still swirled lie a black sandstorm in his mind. Everything is different now. Dee was no longer Dee, he was Deceit, a being of darkness well up the food chain, given the job to corrupt or kill the four new souls of ancient light. But darkness and light can’t exist without one another, and neither are all good or all bad. And the truth of life was twisted, in Deceit’s opinion. People didn’t understand how the world really worked. Some did, but seemed like they just didn’t care. Some did nothing, others tried and failed.

But, for now, it was all stereotyped as a simple black-and-white fairytale. And if that’s how people saw people like Deceit – and even Jones – from the beginning, why try to be anything else? Jones hasn’t seen it yet, and the boys haven’t had the chance, but hopefully they’ll see it. He honestly didn’t care as much for the others, but if he got them too, it would be a win. But, if he managed to convince Virgil and Jones… make them see what he sees, feel was he feels… maybe they could be together again.

Maybe they could be a family.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (If you don't know what the joke is from the notes at the top, think about who the chapter is centering on) 
> 
> I haven't been updating as frequently as I like. I have been busy with life stuff, but mostly because I need to be motivated to write for the story. Not that I'm just feeling like not writing for this anymore, more like I have to get back into writing for it. Also, I keep getting fic ideas for all sorts of things to write, but I never find time to put it all down. So there's a lot of new story drafts just sitting around waiting to be finished.  
> But, rest assured, I'm gonna keep this things alive and keep writing! Sorry for the longer pauses between chapters, but this is still coming. And there might be new content for other stories later. 
> 
> Cas out.


	17. Playing with Fire - Rolling Stones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note about Remy: So, I'm sorry to say that Remy will most likely not show up for the rest of this fic. I had reasons to put him in here, but from now on it's gonna make it to messy if I tried to push Remy into the storyline. (I mean, this is already kinda a mess, but a fun mess, right?)
> 
> Although, I've already been thinking about making a sequel. I know, impatient thoughts. "Cas, you're not even near the climax, but you're thinking of a second part?" But there are things that I really want to be part of this fic, but it won't work for the storyline of the fic, but it would for a sequel. I'm not making any promises, but I'm just saying the thoughts have already crossed my mind. I just thought I'd put these out there, and that if there is a second part, we'd see a lot more Remy, and hopefully get to know Deceit more. And.... Could that be Remus in the not guaranteed sequel future?
> 
> Just letting you guys, gals, and non-binary pals know!

 

The boys sat around the rather small table, eating their breakfast. Emile had been the one who cooked this morning, as Jones hadn’t been seen since last night. She was apparently still in her room doing Chuck knows what. Emile opted to cook breakfast because he didn’t want the boys going without a hardy breakfast. Fairies healed a lot faster the most things, so he was almost completely healed. The injuries had been rather bad, so it was harder to heal, but he was doing rather well.

They sat in a comfortable silence. Virgil was zoned out, putting himself into autopilot as he ate. He thought back to the previous night. He hadn’t seen Deceit in his dreams like he thought he would. It both concerned him and relieved him at the same time. Deceit said he would come back last time, whilst complaining about how Virgil had wasted his time. He didn’t quite get it, especially since it didn’t seem that long.

“So, what’s Jones doing that’s taking her this long?” Roman’s voice snapped Virgil out of his mind. After he registered the question, he realized that Jones had been gone quite a while. He was rather curious too. Apparently, so was everyone else. All eyes turned to Emile as he froze from the sudden attention.

“Honestly,” Emile sighed as he swallowed and set down his fork. “I have absolutely no idea. But, that’s just her. She can be a bit spontaneous sometimes. At one moment you understand what she’s doing, and she’s rather open. The next, she may close herself off and do things no one understands,” Emile said. He seemed a bit sad. It has seemed like he was a bit close to her, and he knew a good bit about her. It had been hinted at that she hid her emotions a lot. But honestly, how many people are open about their emotions anymore? Virgil knew he wasn’t very open about it.

“So we’ll just have to wait ‘till she comes out of her room to figure out what she’s doing?” Patton asked.

“Well, that’s if she decides to tell us. I hope she’s not up to trouble, though,” Emile said, mumbling the last bit under his breath.

Before anything else was said, they were interrupted by Jones bursting out of her room, and quite literally flying over. Their attention was turned to Jones, who was smiley happily. It was rather bright for her, but not a terrible sight.

“Emile, you know how everyone felt kinda useless the other day because I took Patton out to practice and they didn’t have anything to do? Like I just left you guys without really telling you guys what you could do,” Jones said. Emile nodded. She obviously had an idea on how to fix this. You would practically see the lightbulb above her head. “Are you up to taking one of the boys or practice today?” Jones asked. Emile’s expression changed. He seemed to know _exactly_ what Jones was thinking.

“Jones, kiddo, you aren’t planning on pushing yourself, are you?” Emile asked warningly.

“Look, it’ll only be this once. This is mostly unlocking their powers, letting them know it’s there. That’s the hard part. After that, learning how to better control it is easy. Like, way easier, for everyone.”

“Are you sure you can handle it? You know how draining it can be,” Emile said.

“Yeah, I can. I’m feeling rather well today,” Jones said pleadingly.

“Fine. But if it ends up being to much at all, at any time, please stop. Take it easy on yourself, okay?” Emile said.

“Yeah, alright,” Jones said, then she turned to the boys, who had been staring at their conversation, trying to understand what was being said. “Okay, so since you guys felt pretty useless yesterday, I figured out how we could work this. Emile could take one of you guys, and I could take two today, considering Patton has gotten his powers.. ‘woken up’, as they say.” Jones leaned against the kitchen counter, nibbling on bacon. Well, take the word ‘nibbling’ with a grain of salt. Jones hecking loved bacon. “Reason being, I don’t wanna push Emile too hard. He’s still healing.”

“Oh, yeah, but you can push yourself when you’re healing,” Emile mumbled under his breath.

“I had reasons,” Jones said sharply.

“What will I do, then?” Patton asked.

“Oh, well, whatever you wanna do. Of course, we’d prefer you to come with one of us when we go out, but you don’t really have to do anything,” Emile answered.

“Okey dokey,” Patton said.

“Jones,” Logan said, finally speaking up. He’d been rather quiet. “What did you mean when you said this was just our powers being ‘woken up’?”

“Oh, sorry I never mentioned. See, this is mostly kind of getting your body to realize your powers. See, when you turned eighteen, your powers were unlocked. But now, it’s waking them up to work them, in a way. Then afterwards, you can focus on better controlling them.”

“Better controlling them?” Logan questioned.

“There’s a lot more you guys can do with your powers than just move around your element and change into an animal. That’s when the real training is gonna happen.”

“Yep. Now, we should figure out who goes with who then,” Emile said.

“I say Logan and Patton goes with you, and I’ll take Virgil and Roman,” Jones said. Emile looked at the boys with a look that asks, ‘is that okay with you?’. After a silent all-around agreement, Emile nodded.

“Sounds good to me,” he added. “Although, last time you went out you only had Patton, and it was near dinner time when you came back. I’m packing us all food.” Emile went farther into the kitchen, already pulling out food.

“Oh! Let me help,” Patton said, getting up from his seat and joining Emile.

After Emile and Patton got some snacks and meals ready for everyone, they headed out. Patton, Logan, and Emile head in the opposite direction of Virgil, Roman, and Jones. They decided to spilt up because it would be easier to focus with less people around.

Virgil was rather curious about the whole ordeal. Emile said that Jones could only take one of them at a time, as it was seriously draining on her. Virgil got that. Considering that this was more of… ‘waking up’ there powers, it must be a bit harder. Virgil got seriously drained just being around people in general. But now she was taking two of them at the same time? It made sense that since Emile was a bit better, he could handle taking one of them. But still, this was odd. Was she pushing herself just so some of them didn’t stay home bored? That really can’t be healthy.

Well, whatever the case may be, they were still doing this.

Besides, it’s not as if Virgil is opposed to getting to do this. Yes, it is definitely nerve-wracking, but he’d rather get this done so he at least knows a bit of what he’s doing. It is also really freaky to consider the fact that Roman will be watching too. Not that he doesn’t trust Roman, he lo- cares for Roman. The thing is, it’s just weird to have anyone watching him do this. Weird enough with Jones, he barely knows her, but now she’s their only source of information other than Emile. It’s weirder to have Roman. But, at the same time, it’s kind of nicer to have Roman around, a sort of comfort.

God, why does everything have to be so confusing?

Jones lead them through the woods, Roman following close behind and Virgil behind Roman. Waling through the woods, Virgil couldn’t help but have this remind him of something a dumb horror movie character would do. Like in Camp Camp, Max following the Quarter Master into the woods. He asked the Quarter Master if this is the place where teens go to get murdered. The Quarter Master just replied with “Probably.” Not very reassuring.

Then again, he was seen dragging a blooding bag the same size and similar shape as a human body, so…

Virgil snapped out of those thoughts, making sure he was paying attention. You know, it might be nice to know the exact direction they were heading, in case he had to make it back to the cabin on his own. Hey, better to be safe than sorry. Rule Number Eight: When in Doubt, Know Your Way Out. This may not be Zombieland for real, but those rules are good to go by. Virgil often follows them, though he knows certain ones he isn’t great at.

An arm wrapped around Virgil’s shoulders, causing him to jump slightly.

“Woah, easy there Panic! At the Everywhere,” Roman said. Virgil released a small breath he didn’t quiet notice he was holding.

“What do you want now, Princey?” Virgil said with a sharp glare and playful smirk.

“You’re awfully quiet back here. Whatcha thinking about, Doom and Gloom?” Virgil glanced up for a moment, before letting his eyes fall back to the ground as they walked.

“Nunya,” Virgil solemnly spoke.

“Nunya? What’s that?” Roman asked concerned, mostly because of the tone Virgil suddenly took. Virgil looked up and made eye contact with a serious and saddening expression, before a large smirk grew on his face.

“Nunya business,” he said.

“You’re an ass,” Roman said as he pushed Virgil aside just a tad. They laughed, and even heard a little chuckle come from the woman clad in black in front of them.

“Alright, we’re here. Same place as yesterday,” Jones said as they came to a clearing. “So, who’s going first?”

**\------**

“Isn’t it obvious?” Roman asked as he stepped up to the Emo Ice Queen and put a hand to his chest.

“Yeah, I think we all know who,” Virgil commented behind him, a smirk in his voice.

“Alright, I figured that much,” Jones chuckled.

Roman was absolutely _static_. This is incredible. Roman was always one to dream big, to hope for more from his life than the small town he’s been stuck in for his whole life. He was a sucker for anything fantasy related. Knights in shining armor, princes fighting dragons, witches casting curses, and all things around and in between. But now was his chance to be a part of the magic. A chance to do something with his life.

A chance to _be_ something.

“Ready?” Jones asked.

“Yeah, heck yeah,” Roman said quickly, a goofy grin growing on his face.

“Well, let’s get to it.”

**\------**

“Logan, you’ve been awfully quiet today.”

Logan’s gaze shifted from the trees surrounding them to look at Patton. He seemed… worried. That concerned Logan. Logan hated seeing Patton worry over him. Not that Logan didn’t enjoy the attention, just that he hated seeing Patton feel any negative emotions. Patton was one of the most emotional people Logan has ever met, and he often shows it. Patton not feeling well gives Logan a twisting feeling in his gut that he hates.

“Well, I’m usually quiet,” Logan responded.

“I mean, something just seems off with you today,” Patton sighed. “Is it… about last night?”

“What do you mean?” Logan asked.

“I mean… are you still thinking about all this? Like, well, I don’t know how to put it into words. I’m not the greatest at words,” Patton laughed quietly. “Is what all we talked about last night still getting to you?”

“No.”

“Lo.”

Logan paused. What was he even supposed to say to that? He stayed quiet for a few moments, considering what Patton just asked. They walked a little farther, in an awkward silence, until finally, Logan heaved out a sigh.

“I suppose… I’ve just been overthinking things,” Logan said. “I’m beginning to understand what is happening, but it’s hard to comprehend for someone like me. I believe in only the logical things, and now that’s all figuratively going down the drain. I know we discussed this last night as well, so…”

“That’s alright Lo, I get it,” Patton said.

“Thank you Patton,” Logan said quietly. “And our talk last night… it did help.” Patton smiled.

“Well, I’m glad. I’m definitely willing to spend more time with you if you need it,” Patton offered sweetly. Logan turned to face him, a soft smile pulling at his lips ever so slightly.

“How are you handling this so well?” Logan asked. “I know you will always be there for me, but I’ll be there for you too, you know. And so will Roman and Virgil.”

“Thanks, Lo. I might take you up on that.”

“Up where?”

Patton laughed.

“Alrighty, we’re here,” Emile said as they reach a clearing, similar to the one Patton was at, but not the same. It must be a constant for these people. “You ready Lo?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

**\------**

Roman’s eye light up, both metaphorically and literally, as the fire swirled around him, seemingly glittering. It moved through the air like flowers shaded red, orange, and yellow. Roman was entranced by it’s beauty, much so that he reached out to touch it. Funny, it didn’t burn him like it should. In fact, it wasn’t even hot. It just felt… right. It swirled and twisted around his hand and fingers in almost a sentient like fashion. He suddenly started to hear something before-

“-an? Earth to Roman, do you copy?” Roman snapped out of his trance and turned to see Virgil staring at him in utter confusion. “Dude, you’ve been standing there staring at the fire floating around for like ten minutes straight. Are you like… good man?”

“Yea- yeah, I’m good, I just-” Roman’s eyes fell to the fire for a moment again before looking back at Virgil, “It’s amazing. I’ve always wished for something like this. Only in my wildest dreams has this ever been able to happen, and now look,” Roman laughed.

“You’re a doof.”

“Your point?” Roman laughed. The fire swirled around still, some of it fast, some of it slow.

“Hey, Virgil?” Jones said, getting Virgil’s attention. “Does Roman’s fire feel hot to you specifically?”

“Um… yeah? It’s fire,” Virgil said.

“I know,” Jones chuckled. “I just wanted to check and make sure I wasn’t the only one. Heat affects me a bit stronger than most. Good thing the fire hasn’t hit us. But for Roman… Roman should be unaffected by the heat of the fire, right?” Jones turned to Roman, who was touching the fire again. He snapped out of his thoughts, looking back.

“What?”

“I’ll take the fire playing as a yes,” Jones said. “So, there’s always an extra perk to having element-based powers. For me, I can control and create ice. When I create ice, I often use the air molecules, which actually gives me more control over air molecules than one would think, giving me certain flight abilities. Patton is the same way, and- shit, I forgot to tell him that.”

“Wait, so you’re saying Patton can fly?” Roman questioned.

“It’ll take a while for him to figure it out but, technically, yes,” Jones said.

“I don’t know if I like the sound of that…” Virgil said.

“But,” Jones said. “You all have similar things like that. Roman, you are one hundred percent fire-proof.”

“Wha- really?” Roman asked.

“Yep,” Jones said, popping the ‘p’ at the end of the word. “The smoke any fire gives off won’t affect you negatively either. So, the heat won’t harm you. In fact, you’ll likely feel right at home in the heat. Any heat, really.”

Roman was… fire-proof. He was fire-proof. So like, fire won’t burn him? He could walk into a burning building and help people and be totally fine. Jones said the smoke wouldn’t affect him either.

Roman was suddenly getting ideas. There was a good few things he could do with this power already, and now knowing that the fire wont be able to hurt him, there was endless possibilities. Ideas shot through his head, spinning around and shouting. It was like a lightbulb lite up above his head and couldn’t go out.

“Uh oh,” Virgil said. “You’d better stop now; you’re giving him ideas.” This caused Roman to laugh, which eventually spread into a good and healthy fit of laughter for the group. Eventually, the fire died down as they began to settle.

“So… do you want to figure out what your animal is?” Jones asked.

“Yeah!” Roman cried with a smile.

“You just never tire, do you Princey?” Virgil asked.

“Nope, I’m an eternal flame baby!” Roman shouted with glee, getting Virgil to smirk at the Steven Universe reference.

“Okay, so do you understand how to focus, like what I told you about the fire?” Jones asked, and Roman nodded his head vigorously. “Just focus.”

Roman took a deep breathe in and closed his eyes. He focused on the feelings, the thoughts, and the memories Jones told him to think of. As he remembered these things, and felt the emotions, he started to feel… different. It wasn’t a bad different, just a new different. It felt… interesting, to say the least. It didn’t feel bad, but it didn’t feel amazing, either. Just… different.

The changing feeling past, and he was left feeling great, but completely off at the same time. Opening his eyes, he saw Jones and Virgil staring at him. Except they seemed… shorter? Well, Virgil was already a tad bit shorter than Roman, but Jones actually seemed a bit taller than him. But now he felt taller than both of them.

“Woah,” Virgil said.

“That’s… big…” Jones said.

“What? What is it?” Roman asked.

“Oh my god he looks like a kid show character when he talks,” Virgil smirked slightly, but still had a look of awe.

Roman started to step forward when it felt off. He looked down, and instead of his feet, he saw… hooves? What? He started to move around, shaking his limbs and rolling his head in the way he could.

“What?...” Roman asked aloud.

“Dude, you’re like a humongous horse,” Jones blurted out. “Well, not a giant, but the biggest I’ve ever seen.”

“Really?” Roman asked.

“Yeah man,” Virgil interjected.

“Here, look,” Jones got a large chuck of ice out of thin air. It was reflective enough so that Roman could see a bit of him, and he was, in fact, a horse. He was a pure white horse, his eyes the only part of him that wasn’t white, which were pure black.

“Huh,” was all Roman could say. The ice disappeared and Roman looked back at the other two. Jones pulled a small book out of her hoodie pocket, and started to flip through, before stopping on one page with a victorious look.

“Horse – Swiftness, strength, enlightenment, possesses healing powers,” Jones said. “Now, I’m no expert, but I don’t think you specifically will have healing powers,” Jones added as she closed the book.

“Hey, isn’t that the book I got from Angel?” Virgil asked as he stared at the book.

“Oh, right. I kept ahold of it so Dee… ceit, couldn’t get to it. You can have it back now if you want it, just tale care of it,” Jones said as she tossed it to Virgil, who luckily caught it.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starving now.” Jones glanced up at the sky for a moment.

“Well, I’d say it’s already about time to eat anyway,” Jones said. “Of course, I’m dying to know what your half-way look is gonna be.”

“Oh my god yes,” Virgil said.

“My what now?” Roman asked.

“You know, like when Patton had the dog tail and ears,” Virgil said.

“Ooooooohh that,” Roman said. “But I just turned horse.”

“Well now you can turn not horse,” Virgil said. “If you want to each lunch, you have to be not horse.”

“Fiiiiiiiiine,” Roman said, and he focused on turning. When he finally got it, he opened his eyes and first felt disappointment, then utter confusion. He saw Virgil topple over and fall to the ground in laughter, Jones trying not to follow. Roman, on the other hand, didn’t find it funny.

“What the heckity heck two abs and one peck?” Roman asked, looking at Jones for answers, but she couldn’t answer. She was laughing to hard.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Pls forgive any typos in this fic pls) Yes, you will have to wait until the next chapter to find out what happened! Mwahaha. I do appreciate guesses, though. I love reading your comments.
> 
> I will tell you that, I you haven't guess, it's what Roman turned into that made him freak.
> 
> Thanks for your support so far! In the wise words of Dean Winchester, you're awesome.
> 
> Cas out.


	18. ***Not a Chapter! Please Read!***

AO3: *is just chilling* 

 

*Crashing noise in the distance* 

 

AO3: The heck is that? 

 

AO3 Users: *Mumbling through crowd* 

 

*Crashing sounds intensify as something approaches* 

 

AO3: *Gets up, tense* 

 

Me: *Busts into room, carrying a mountain of drafts for different stories* Whoops haha sorry I'm late! *Drops some papers* shit. *slips on papers* fUCK *Continues to fumble about, muttering swears* 

 

AO3: ...Who is that again? 

 

 

 

Greetings and salutations my dear friendos! Would you look at that, I'm not dead! Sooooooooooooo if you haven't guessed yet, I am discontinuing this. I kinda just didn't like the way this was written out. I think what I really need to do is not have multi-chapter fics because while I absolutely love writing these stories, I tend to wander to new stories and forget the old ones. If I stuck to longer one-shots, like Big Fun (I'm actually pretty proud of that one) then it might be easier on me. If I do have multi-chapter fics, I should probably have a lot of, if not all the chapters already written out. 

I want to rewrite this in the future, because I don't want to leave it at just a first time fanfic that was forgotten in the gutters. As I said, I didn't like the way this was written out, but I do like the main basis of the story. There are going to be definite changes for this fic if I do ever get around to rewriting it, like it will likely be LAMP instead of Prinxiety and Logicality, because I feel like it fits the story better. 

I decided to go ahead and announce this because I haven't updated anything in forever and I want it to be known for a act I'm not dead. I originally thought I'd wait until I had some of the rewritten version ready to publish, but I realized that might be a lot longer than I'd like, if at all. If I do get around to rewriting it, I will definitely update this and let you all know.

Also, you guys are the greatest. I love the support you gave, and your comments absolutely make my day when I get them! You are great, don't you forget I or I will personally have to find you and fight you. With that being said, I hope to update something soon, and I hope you have a great day or night or whatever time zone you live it. Take it easy guys, gals, and nonbinary pals!

 

Peace out ~~bitches~~! 

 

 

 

AO3: ...Seriously who is she? 


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